Footsteps Treading Through My Childhood

I've been reading accounts published here for a while now and I felt I'd like to be a part of this more openly and share my own experiences with what I think might have been ghosts.

I was a child when all of this happened (around 10 or so) and, to be honest, I have so many I-don't-knows and I-don't-remembers regarding these stories I'm about to tell that I had a very hard time to figure out how to put it all together in most truthful and wholesome way. He main thing I remember is this fear that slowly sinks down in your body and paralyzes you and the rest of the details and circumstances are a blur.

The first experience I remember took place in a house outside our town, quite a remote area surrounded by wood. My friend's dad guarded it at nights. As I was more of a "speak when spoken to" type of kid, I have no clue what he was guarding and what that building was. It had a large room downstairs with a big table and sofas and chairs. The upstairs space was filled with large shelves full of old-timey accounting materials - blanks and even, I think, some typewriters. But I don't think anyone was working there, the upstairs had all that abandoned space vibe to it. It was also kind of creepy with all the dust and files we were allowed to go through.

I suspect there was nothing really to guard much and the actual job was to heat the place so it doesn't go dump although we never explored the entire building. My friend's dad took us with him because there was a computer upstairs. Computers were a whole new exotic world to us and nobody really had one at home yet so we were so excited to play games on it or even use Paint.

I should also mention my friend had great fun telling me all kinds of ghost stories as I was easily scared. She also told me her dad thought the building was haunted and he felt watched when he went out to bring in the wood for fire. This I really don't know because she would totally be one to lie to me but it might have added to my fears and perhaps even imagination.

I was upstairs playing some game with a stick figurine guy jumping over fire and my friend went down, I think, to make some tea because the house wasn't heated to the comfy temperatures. After a while I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I remember I felt uneasy about those footsteps. As I try to recall them, they feel heavier and slower than my friend's; however, if she was carrying full cups of tea... Anyhow, I freaked out and called my friend's name to make sure it was her. Nobody answered and I have a vague memory of hearing her somewhere far downstairs but I might have imagined this, I don't know anymore.

Still, I was frozen there in terror as the footsteps were approaching, it was about time for the one who made them to appear on the stairs but it didn't happen. The footsteps stopped. I didn't hear them going back down either. Then, I think, my friend returned with the tea and I just don't remember anything, I don't even think I told her or anyone until much later.

The other story is even more vague. I just remember that I was in bed and then I was all scared. I don't even know why - if I imagined something or we had talked about something frightening, but I was panicky and hid under covers. My great-grandma had left for the bathroom (we had only one for the 7 apartments). As I was hiding under covers, I heard footsteps crossing the room. I thought it was my grandma but I still was too freaked to peek from underneath my blanket. And then I heard the apartment door open and my grandma came in just now which meant it hadn't been her walking in the room previously.

There are too many things I don't remember about this experience, it was like one big mess full of dread and some kind of strange feeling of desperation, you know, of the sort when something tragic is about to happen and you are aware it will and you can do nothing. This might have been just fear talking but actually I have had lots of panic attacks and imagined dangers and this just feels different, I'm telling it because in my gut I feel it has some reality to it.

I have a feeling (not really a memory) another friend of mine was also there for a sleepover, but there are no details on this whatsoever and I don't think it was her walking, although I have no memory to prove it. My guess is she was also under covers with me.

I just know that I was so freaked I asked my great-grandma to tell me bedtime story which she frequently did anyway.

It's probably also worth mentioning that the house my grandma lived in was rather old, built in, I'd say, 19th century for the servants of the local manor to reside.

Thank you kindly for your patience reading my very messy accounts.