Just A Feeling

To be honest, I am not sure if this is just a result of an overactive imagination brought on by watching programmes such as Most Haunted, or if it is genuinely something I 'picked up on' or 'sensed'. But to me the feelings and thoughts experienced were real enough and something I often find my mind wandering too even now. I would just like to state, I am no sensitive (that I'm aware of) and only believe I have briefly seen what could have been an apparition once, and that could be debatable.

In June 2005 I had met a girl who would go on an become my wife and mother to my daughter. We lived separately for a while, I lived with my mate in his flat, and she lived in a shared house after moving to the area from out of town. We were doing all the things couples do when they are newly together, life was good.

In June 2006 I received a tax refund of around £2,500, which to me is a lot of money. With this money we decided we were going to find a house to rent and move in together, it seemed the logical next step. We were nervous about it, and looked around a few houses but nothing seemed right for us, either too far from work, was too big, too small, or generally just minging (we didn't have a lot of money for monthly rent). Then we found a house available on the outskirts of the village I had grew up in. We looked around it, it was a perfect fit, and even better, it was affordable. So we did the paperwork and signed a 6 month lease and moved in.

Now a brief description of the house - it was parts of a terrace of houses on a slight hill, built in around the 1840's for railway workers. It had few original features, although the original fireplaces in the living & bedrooms were still there, although blocked up. As you go through the front door, you enter the living room, a square room with fireplace and large flat window looking out the front. Walk through the front room and you come to a dark middle room, approx. 20' x 20'. This room had little natural light and from the off felt negative and eerie (I put this down to the lack of light and the old horse hair couch sat in there). From this room you walk into a narrow galleon kitchen, which had a door to the right leading to the back garden, and at the far end of the kitchen was a family sized bathroom. Also leading off the eerie middle room was dark wood slatted stairs which lead to the main bedroom straight ahead, and a smaller second room to the right as you got to the top of the stairs.

The house was pretty small, but we were very excited to be living there. From day 1, the spare bedroom was not a place either me or Gem wanted to be, it was a small room big enough to fit a double bed, wardrobe and draws in, little else. It had the emersion heater cupboard in also. When I was putting the spare metal bed frame together, I spend the most time I ever did in there. It felt claustrophobic, oppressive, and like you had walked in someone else's room uninvited. We only ever went in there if we really needed too, which was rarely. Our bedroom had a similar feeling, but nowhere near as intense, although the feeling did get stronger at night. I would sometimes be lying in bed at night watching TV, and would just find myself staring at the closed door, almost expecting it to open. It never did.

The worst part of this house to me was the dark middle room downstairs. I would literally run through it. I don't know why, it just always seemed an involuntary action. We had a large desktop PC at the time on table placed in there, and if I ever needed to use it, I would wheel it into the front room just to avoid sitting in there.

Over time it got worse, and finally it peaked. I like to play my PlayStation to unwind, and would sit up in the evening playing once Gem had gone to bed. I had a clear view from my seat through the middle room into the kitchen. And although it started with a feeling of being watched, over time I would be so distracted I would have to get up and close the door, move my seat, or just leave the downstairs altogether and go up to bed.

I started getting pictures flash through my head. The image I repeatedly got night after night was of an old man, quite tall, with thinning white hair, down turned snarling mouth with dark, very piercing eyes. I could kind of visualise him stood in the doorway leading from the middle room to the kitchen, and he felt evil. I can describe his as nothing but wanting to hurt me, wanting to cuss and shout and do horrific things to me. I never physically heard anything, it is just part of this feeling I had. It didn't matter what the time of day was, this man was there, but the only time I got these mind images was when I was just sat by myself, almost when he could get to me. I can't describe how bad this feeling was, or how evil they were also.

As our 6 month lease was up, circumstances were able to help us move out to a better suited house for us. And as it transpired the owner of the house wanted us out so he could move back in. When this was confirmed I felt such a sense of relief, almost happy. I didn't know if it was all in my head, but the only place I felt this man was in this house, and now I was leaving.

I had never mentioned it to Gem, I just didn't want to frighten her for no reason. After we had left, and settled in our new abode, I said, just in passing, "I think that place was haunted anyway." To my shock, she said, "Yeah, I felt like there was an old man there, near the stairs, and he was not good at all." I asked her to elaborate, but she says that was the only feeling she ever had, but she says she felt it quite a lot.

I don't know if we had actually felt a spirit there, or if it was just suggestive because the room was dark and eerie, but I know that I didn't speak to Gem about it at all, and she knew it was there. That amazed, and still does amaze me. She won't watch ghost programmes, or horror films or anything scary at all, so her mind surely could not have been influenced by this. It was just a feeling.

Please let me know your thoughts and opinions and thanks for reading.