Constant Rattling

Growing up I lived in the middle of the woods. No neighbors for about a mile on each side and we own 60 acres of forest then a swamp after that. So basically I lived in the middle of nowhere.

One summer when I was about 14, I was out in the middle of the woods playing with my dog Max (I'm an only child and both of my parents were out of town for the day) when I kept feeling something hit my elbow. I'd go to throw Max's ball and the bump would make me throw it almost straight up. Assuming it was just me bumping it on trees or something I ignored it. After the fourth or fifth time of it happening I thought... Well, this sucks I'll just go home.

Walking back I felt uneasy but I knew I was just freaking myself out because we were alone. About an hour later Max and I are at home on the couch when the garage door opens and he starts barking, barking, barking. I hop up to go let in my Mom or Dad, even though they were home really early. I peered through the peephole and saw the door was still shut and no one was in the garage. Quieting Max down, I opened the door slowly and called out for my dad. Nothing... No response at all so I go out to check the door and it's still locked. Okay... Sure. Weird, but oh well. Max heard it too so at least I know I'm not crazy.

About 20 minutes later I hear the door open again and this time Max starts growling like crazy. I quiet him down again and just assume it's the wind or something making noise even though by this point my heart is racing. I hear footsteps come up the stairs and think "oh jeez, dad really is home this time" and hop up and run to the door. It starts to jiggle so I run faster to let him in. I peep through the hole and even though my hand is loosely around the jiggling handle, there's no one on the other side of the door. Terrified, I go hide on the couch with all the lights on. Max is still growling.

About an hour after that I start to feel a little better, even though I'm still terrified, then I hear the door handle jiggle again. This time it was Max jiggling it, he needed to go outside and the only way outside to his kennel for bathroom time is through the garage.

Fantastic.

I literally sprint with him to the kennel and as I'm standing in there I decide to ask this "thing" questions to make myself feel better because I knew it wouldn't answer me. Thinking about what to ask it, my eyes are drawn to the huge heavy oak door on the kennel. It was always open because it was too heavy for me to move easily. I said, "Ok ghost! If you're real, you'll shut this heavy door!" nothing... A minute goes by...nothing. Max is still sniffing around. I turn around to yell at him to hurry up and then from behind me I hear 'click'. I whipped around and saw the giant door had swung shut and latched. Okay... Clearly it was just the wind. It wasn't really windy but... It was the wind, for sure, had to be. I proceed to say "Ok ghost that was the wind, if you're REALLY real you'll open this massive door back up!" Nothing. I relax a bit and then squat down with my head in on my knees, reminiscing about how lame I just was being scared when I hear 'click clack'. The door was now wide open. Max was done so we booked it back into the house locking every door in the house.

For the next 4 hours I would hear the footsteps on the stairs in the garage and the door handle jiggling every few minutes, until finally around 11pm my dad walks in and yells at me for wasting electricity.

I never told him or my mom about it until about a 4 months later when my dad came in from hunting after dark. He looked shaken and I asked him what was wrong... He said he aimed at two deer but missed both completely because it felt as if something was hitting his elbow and making him shoot way above the deer.

That's when I told him everything.

I posted this story to Reddit a long time ago but it would be great to get some feedback from the people here. Thanks.