The Little Girl In White.

(I didn't realize how long this was going to be. Sorry if it's too long to read, I understand. I'm a writer, so I tend to get carried away with all the details, even the boring ones. But this is all very real and I had to let it out.)

I've never truly believed in ghosts or spirits until recently. You see, my grandparents moved into a new home about two years ago. They were in debt and lost their previous home in the country and decided to relocate closer to the rest of their family. With my grandparents, are three children. The first is their youngest son at 13 years old. (Call him Joey.) Yes, my mom has a thirteen year old brother. The other two are my cousins that they adopted because my uncle was too unfit to be a parent. (Call them Allie who is 12 and Scott who is 8.) Anyways, this story is more about them then it is about me.

They lived there for about three months before it was Christmas Eve where my entire family gets together to celebrate at my grandparents house. Allie was in her bedroom with her two younger cousins who are both around 4 and 5. Up until this point there had been no problems. The girls had been in the room together, playing fine until Allie came running out with the two little ones, sobbing hysterically. Nobody could calm her down or get her under control. She has a history of being paranoid and frightened easily as she was under the governments care a lot so her freaking out isn't entirely out of the norm. Still, we had never seen her so terrified before.

Once she was calm enough to speak, she told my grandmother that she had seen something in her room. A little girl, to be more specific. Our littlest cousin Cam who is four had been standing in front of a play vanity and had been turned away from the mirror, staring at something behind Allie. Allie, who had been concerned for the 4 year old, kneeled in front of her to see what was the matter and what she was staring at. But before she could even ask, Allie seen in the reflection of the mirror that there was a little girl in a white dress standing behind her. Thus, freaking out, grabbing both of the little girls and running out of the room in hysterics.

Nobody took it seriously. Especially, because like I said, Allie has a history of being paranoid which is normal after everything she's been through. My grandma assured her that it was nothing, but Allie was convinced of what she had seen and refused to enter her bedroom for the remainder of the night. I however was more skeptic and a part of me did believe that she'd seen something because I'd seen the fear in her eyes and it wasn't normal. I took it upon myself to ask Cam what had happened, since nobody else had, her being four years old and all. After the incident she had clung to her mother for the rest of the night, refusing to leave her side. When I was able to get her alone, I asked her what she'd seen. Her only reply was, "a mask." I figured that she was little and the only way that she could describe what she had seen was relating it to the one thing that all little kids are afraid of. Masks.

For the rest of the night, that was it and it all kind of went by forgotten. Now I can't specifically remember the order of events that took place next. It's all sort of like a blur as strange things began happening. Small things, really. I visited my grandparents house often and even stayed there during the week sometimes since it was near my college and convenient. Lights turning off, TVs shutting off for no reasons, things randomly falling, that sort of thing. Allie was constantly scared, and she showed it when these sort of occurrences took place. She became hysterical around me a few times and I had to hold her for a long time to try to calm her down. She also didn't like talking about the things going on, whatsoever. The boys were somewhat unaffected and knew about the small things but didn't seem very convinced or bothered as they shared a room and were oblivious. My grandpa was ignorant and my grandmother to the very core of her soul refused to believe that such a thing could be possible. She believed that since the home was older, it was nothing more then electricity problems.

I experienced my first dose of these strange occurrences one night when my and my eight year old sister Lily spent the night. My 13 year old brother also stayed the night but he slept with the boys while me and Lily slept in Allie's room. Me, being the oldest cousin and all decided that I'd take the twin bed while the two of them made a comfortable bed on the floor. However I woke up in the middle of the night around 2 or 3 am. I laid there for a few moments, motionless before realizing that I had to use the restroom. When I returned, I checked on the girls to find that they were still peacefully asleep before laying in the bed and trying to go back to sleep myself. My eyes were closed when I heard a small, tiny voice clearly say, "Mommy, I'm tired." I was so terrified that I couldn't move. It took me awhile before I could lift my head to check on the girls again and see if one of them had said it. But they were both still in a deep sleep. Convincing myself that it was one of Allie's silly, talking toys, I forced myself to go to back to sleep.

I told Allie about it the next morning and she was convinced that she had NO toys whatsoever that talked. She said that she had cleaned out her room before moving and gave away all her babyish, talking toys to our little cousin Cam. We raided her room for the rest of the day looking for any explanation as to what the voice could have been. And like she had said, we found nothing and I was left rattling my brain and wondering if I had been half awake. But a part of me is still sure of what I had heard that night. Later on that week I had been in the back yard, playing fetch with my dog when the next door neighbor, an older man had stood next to the gated fence to be friendly and ask about my dog. After discussing our dogs for a few minutes, he somehow later when on to tell me about how the piece of land my grandparents had moved on had once been a park. But after some time, a home had been built onto that piece of land and that home had been tragically ruined in a fire. So the landlord that was currently renting the home out to my grandparents, bought it and rebuilt it.

I was baffled and suddenly a lot of things made sense. He didn't know if there had been any casualties as he hadn't lived in his home at the time, only heard about it. I tried telling my grandma, but she continued to not believe and eventually we all decided to stop talking about and to ignore the small incidents that occurred. But they still happened unfortunately... When Allie was in the boys room, watching them play video games one afternoon, the bottom mattress to the boys bunk bed flew up in the air before falling back down. All three of them claim this happened and came out just as hysterical as Allie had been the first day she'd seen that little girl. Me and my boyfriend spent the night in Allie's room with her sleeping on the ground and both woke up to the sound of someone whispering in our ear. Allie was helping my grandma bring in groceries through the garage when the garage door was suddenly closing on them. (The button on the garage door has to be HELD in order for it to go down.) My little sister was over at my grandparents just last weekend, watching TV with Allie in the living room at night when she claims to have seen a figure walking by. "A girl in a white gown." She called to the figure, thinking it was our grandma but when she entered the kitchen nobody was there. When Allie and Scott fell on asleep on the couch one night, Scott woke up screaming and claiming that something was "biting his toes."

Things seem to be getting worse and more physical, especially towards Allie who will try to go to sleep in her room but sometimes come out into the living room quietly with her blanket to sleep on the couch. She doesn't like talking about it but she recently opened up to me that sometimes when she tries to sleep in the room, she feels something on her back. Something touching her back and almost like a breath on her neck. I'm worried about her and I talked to my friend who is more in tune with the stuff and she believes that this spirit is latching onto Allie because it's feeding off her fear. Or because it's also a little girl who is clinging to her. I have no idea and I honestly don't know what to do because I've never dealt with anything like this before and I'm worried about Allie who is in a constant state of fear in this home. She's been through enough in her life and my grandma is too stubborn to think of this is real but we've ALL experienced it. Granted, Allie's been there every time something has happened to anyone and is the common denominator.

If you've gotten this far, do you have any thoughts? Advice? I'd really appreciate it.