My Haunted Childhood Home - Part 1

I never considered my parent's house to be haunted until I was much older. Even though I encountered strange events, I didn't know what a ghost was and could not explain it as a child.

My first encounter with the paranormal that I can recall was when I was around 6 or 7. At the time I liked sleeping with my door closed. I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night from a deep sleep. I felt compelled to look at the corner of my room and saw a mist that was almost a light blue/pale grey in colour. I would say it was around 5'5 to 5'10 in height but it was more of a long blob with a very vague outline of a head on top of vague shoulders. I remember watching it for a few moments, then I closed my eyes, figuring that my groggy eyes were playing tricks on me, and tried to go back to sleep. I started to get anxious though and opened them again, only to find that the figure that was once motionless in the corner of my room had started to 'sway' towards me, moving very slowly as if it were walking (though I saw no legs). I was still convinced that my eyes were just playing tricks on me and kept opening and closing them, only to find that the mist was coming closer and closer to me. By the time it was near the side of my bed, I tore the covers off and flew straight towards my lamp. What happened next has clung to me until this day. I actually went through this mist and saw individual, extremely tiny balls of light, all dancing and zipping around erratically. It was like running through a weird mixture of TV fuzz and actual water mist, but I felt absolutely nothing (no cold or heat, no emotions, nothing physical). When I turned on my lamp and whirled around, there was nothing there. I went to sleep eventually with the light still on and never kept my door closed after that. I told my parents about it the next morning and although they looked concerned (my parents are very superstitious people), they rationalized that it was perhaps my grandfather visiting me since he died before I was born.

In terms of ghostly happenings, things didn't intensify until my brother and I were teenagers, but I did have very terrible, sometimes very gory nightmares while growing up. It makes little sense since my parents were very good at making sure I didn't see or watch anything scary growing up, so I'm not sure where these images were coming from. I will only briefly touch on some of these nightmares (please note they are somewhat graphic).

When I was very young, around 3 to 5, I had nightmares of a man splitting open a ribcage of another strapped down man who was still fully awake. There was a reoccurring nightmare of a severely decomposed girl (I'd say she was around 6) who would just stare at me in the middle of my school's playground. I had a nightmare where I would 'wake up' in the dream, try to roll over and feel someone in bed with me only to turn around and be horrified to see a very burnt woman with little hair on her scalp staring at me (she had crawled halfway onto my bed, and we were nearly face to face). These are not the dreams of a young girl whose main interests consisted of unicorns, puppies, and Lisa Frank stickers. Most of these nightmares went away as I neared my teenage years, except one. The most terrifying of all my nightmares was the one where I dreamed of countless (normal) looking people surrounding the house and screaming and pounding their fists and palms against all the windows of my parent's house.

At night I would close my eyes and have quick visions of random, distraught faces. Sometimes they would be anything from pale, dirtied faces of children to almost disfigured, rotting faces. I would hear voices while in my bed, lots of voices, like a gymnasium full of people from all walks of life. I would hear little kids, old people, different races, accents (like Irish, Indian, etc.), women, men, some would whisper, some talked normal, some would yell very loud and startle me. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm crazy, but I am not. This happened all while I was growing up, and it stopped immediately the first day I moved out of my parent's house. My nightmares stopped, the voices stopped. If I had a mental illness, I would think that it would have continued regardless where I am. Even though my parents live very close to me, I can't muster up the courage to spend the night there.

I wonder though if it has something to do with the land. I know we are the first people to live in the house, but I had a friend who lived across the street from me who also experienced strange things. She told me that at night she would wake up and find herself surrounded by 'shadow people'. Some would be sitting on her bed, some would just be walking around, and others would just be standing around though none would ever notice her. She told me that she would cover her head with her blanket and go back to sleep since her parents didn't believe her.

I feel like I have rambled enough, I hope everyone enjoyed this introduction to my childhood home. I will update more stories about it soon!