My Haunted Life

We had this dog when I was a kid, her name was Rags and she was fairly ancient by the time I was eleven. So old in fact that I wasn't even surprised when she passed. For years afterwards as I cowered underneath the covers in my childhood bedroom I could hear the soft clicking of her nails on the linoleum kitchen floor. My parents always told me it was the result of an overactive imagination. Of course, that was the explanation they offered me when I was age sixteen and still slept every night with the covers over my head.

It wasn't just Rags that made me afraid in their house, it was everything else. Little noises and sounds. For as long as I could remember, I would wake up because someone would say my name right in my ear. So loud it would jolt me from sleep. Was I dreaming?

As I grew older it became easier to write these things off as silly childhood fears and for several years I made due with just that. When I turned 22 I moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend and soon began to experience that same feeling again. I couldn't explain it quite right. It just felt... Empty and wrong. After years of feeling secure the feeling had returned.

Often nights I would spend laying on my back in bed, watching a shadow move precariously back and forth in front of the bedroom door. Eventually I began waking up to the feeling of fingers poking and prodding into my legs and breath in my ear. One night I was sitting on my bed talking to my boyfriend and we both heard the word "hello" come from a male voice in the living room, there was nobody there upon investigation.

My cats began to act very strangely and out of character. One night I sat on the couch, home alone I heard the unmistakable sound of someone sitting down in my office chair, the slow squeak of it rocking back and forth. Both of my cats were on the couch with me so I knew that neither one of them could be the culprit.

I finally moved out of that apartment, I hated it, the way that it felt. I moved into a new apartment that feels a lot better but strange things still happen. Doors have begun closing on a day when no windows are open. Not even closing, but slamming shut as I walk by them. One night I woke up and I could swear I saw a little boy standing at the foot of my bed. One morning my boyfriend reported that the night before he'd woken up and he thought I was kneeling at the foot of our bed but when he turned to look at where the empty space should be, I was laying there sleeping.

One evening, watching television with my friend Olivia we had quite the scare. We were watching some show and for no obvious reason Olivia stood up from the couch and walked over to the door and stood there. She simply stood there and continued watching TV. Two seconds later a loud bang echoed from the wall right behind where she had just been sitting. To this day she can't remember why she stood up and walked across the room.

So I don't know. Am I haunted or is it just the results of an overactive imagination?