It was July 1, 2012. My family and I were looking for a townhouse to rent. I found one and surprisingly it was really cheap. We started to move in on this date. It was a three bedroom townhouse, two bathrooms, a small lobby, a good sized kitchen, and a dinette, living room, and a 2nd floor balcony to the back, facing the highway. All hydro, water, included along with free internet and cable, two car parking spaces, and free outdoor pool access for under $1000. Names and places have been altered to protect people's identities.
I will try to describe the townhouse unit with the best of my abilities and break it up to make it understandable. (Editor's Note: address has been deleted.)
First Floor.
Once you have entered the place, you are in a small landing with stairs leading up to the main floor landing. It separates in two, one going straight, the other to the right. If you head directly straight you will enter a good sized kitchen, and then as you continue forward to the dinette you will pass on the right doorway opening to the living room. If leaving the kitchen into the living room, on the left you will see a sliding glass door out to the balcony. On the right you will see the rest of the living room. And after turning right and walking straight to you reach the main landing you will see the laundry room, and on the left the first washroom. On the right side of the laundry room is a set of stairs going up to the second floor.
2nd Floor.
Going up the flight of stairs on the landing leads you to a large window that allows seeing the outside parking lot. You then turn right and go up to the top of the landing on the second floor. Once you turn right, and walk straight you will see the 2nd washroom. On the right is the second bedroom. By turning left and walking straight you will pass by the master bedroom on the left and continuing a few more steps you will enter the small third bedroom.
As we didn't have air conditioning, it was always a blessing when we left open all the windows and doors to have a cool breeze go through our place. It was never hot, but always comfortable. I remember when I was seeing the house the first time Jake, the landlord, was still painting the place. I was told we were getting new fridges, new stove, new kitchen sink, kitchen and dinette ceramic tile floors, and a new hardwood floor for the living room. Even though it is new flooring, my wife, son and stepdaughter will still wear their house slippers when entering the kitchen or the dinette.
One night in a November evening I was sitting on the couch watching TV. I was facing slightly to a right angle. This allowed me to see the TV, and see the police pulling over the speeders on the highway. I can see into the dinette partially. The dinette light is off, and so is the kitchen. I had the screen door in place to let the air come in. This was late evening, my wife and my stepdaughter grabbed their snacks and went to their rooms. It was about a good ten minutes as my wife last left the kitchen, and then I saw the tail end of a white dress going into the kitchen out of the corner of my eye. There were loud crashing sounds, and I was wondering who was doing it, and why were they so mad? I quickly got off the couch and ran into the kitchen from the dinette side. But no one was there. There was no mess in the kitchen either or in the dinette, but the lights were all on, and the tap was running.
After I turned off the tap I went upstairs, and asked both my wife and my stepdaughter if anyone was downstairs getting a snack. But when I saw them both, they were in t-shirts and jogging pants. I thought to myself I must have been seeing things due to some bad sushi I must of ate and went back downstairs to continue my enjoyment of TV. This happened intermittently for the next few days, which made me wary, thinking people of over-snacking.
A week later I started to notice something strange about my family. My wife, son and stepdaughter leaving and staying away from the main floor and go into their rooms and close their doors around 11pm on any given day as it was their daily curfew. It was late at night in the morning hours about 2am. I was gaming and playing GT5, sitting right in front the TV, and beside the open screen door. It suddenly got cold, and all of a sudden the light in the kitchen came on as so did the dinette. I didn't hear the sounds of the flop, flop, flop that the houseslippers make as you go down the steps and across a tiled floor. I turned off my game and TV as I prepared myself to scare whoever was there.
I looked and peered in the kitchen from the dinette entry to catch who was down there to surprise them, but once again no one was there. As I stepped back from the doorway and started to head to the washroom, the lights in the kitchen and dinette turned off by itself. I got spooked, and quickly turned off the light in the living room and started running upstairs. As I passed the large window I caught a reflection of an old lady in a white dress, in bare feet, and white hair that it is stickup on all ends on the corner of my left eye, as I was turning to go up the last flight of stairs to the second floor landing.
As I dashed in to my room, my wife was watching TV. She told me not to say anything and just close the door. Once in the room, I looked down from my bedroom window, which was directly above the dinette's window. I saw the light turn back on, just as the same time both my stepdaughter and my son came in to the room. We all stayed watching comedy movies on Netflix. The last time before I fell asleep I checked to see if the light was still on in the dinette again through the window and found it turned off.
The next morning when my landlord came to pick up the rent I asked them about the history about the place, like is it haunted as I indicated to him what I experienced. He only laughed and told me that his mom used to own and live in the place, as she died in the living room. That kind of creeped me out in a way. But like everyone else I made my curfew just the same as theirs just around 11pm to be in the room and sleep.
A few days later my wife and I had an argument saying she was not comfortable living here and wanted to move. As we were just in the middle of the month, it was hard to find a place in a short period of time. I asked of her, why she was not comfortable, she would begin to explain and just shook her head and said it's best that we leave this place. In the back of my mind did she find out that our landlord's mom died in here? However I didn't feel any danger staying here and we agreed that we should move to her cousin that lives nearby temporarily.
Whatever scared them, they didn't waste any time to pack, just take the most important things, as I would pack the rest of the clothes and furniture. I packed up my stepdaughter's room first and had her things moved to Guelph University. During the rest of the move the plans were to be pack and move and be out of the house by 11pm every day.
I stayed home to work; the next room I packed was my son's, where it is the smallest room of the house. Next I had a plan to do the kitchen, the dinette and then the living room. Leaving the master bedroom the last. As my son's room was done, I set up a small folding desk where I can work from. The small bedroom looked down the hall to the second largest room, which was my stepdaughter's room.
As the moving and packing was almost done, with help from friends and relatives, by the fourth day all that was left was the master bedroom and my son's room where I setup a small office. I felt warm; I had two desk fans blowing on me from the left and right. I had the window closed as it was raining.
My son's door was left open for air, all the other rooms had the door closed, and it was during the day when my daughter's room door slowly creaked open. I stared at it amazed, slowly horrifying thoughts came to my mind of what it would be behind the door. Even writing this now is giving me goosebumps. The door stopped halfway opened, but nothing was in the room but light coming from the window. Then all of the sudden, it just slammed shut, making me scream like a little girl. I closed my door and sat behind it. I was so scared. All of the sudden I started to hear flop, flop, flop. It made me worry, then suddenly there was a knock on the door that startled me, and had to cover my mouth from screaming. It felt like a long time has passed. Then it was the voice of my wife coming from the other side saying it was her and some friends to finish the move so we can get out of there. I slowly opened the door with my hands trembling, hoping that it was not something horrible on the other side of the door. To my happiness it was my wife and a few of her friends behind her.
We quickly moved the master bedroom, and as we did I told my wife what happened. She said normally she would say it is the air pressure that happened to be coincidental as they opened the door to come in. But she said it could be her, being angry at us.
As everyone started to leave as the master bedroom was done, all the doors were closed, and the windows shut, I was the only one left in the town house in the small bedroom. Getting my little home office packed and ready to leave with one large gym bag, when all of the sudden my daughter's room door just swung wide open and closed violently again, and again repeatedly. Then I realized it was starting to get faster. I just ran down the hall, down the steps and out the door.
As both my wife and I looked back at the townhouse, as we got in the car, there was a old lady all dressed in white with white hair looking down at us from the landing from the window. Just as we noticed Jake our landlord just pulled up she vanished. He was there to get the key from us. We left right away after giving him the key; we didn't even leave the car. After we moved away, we never had any more experiences like that.
I don't live in Guelph anymore as we moved to Markham, On. My wife and I visit my stepdaughter in Guelph from time to time as she now attends Guelph University and lives on campus. We took a stroll in Stone Rd. Mall and we ran into our old neighbors from the complex. It has been three years since we saw each other. They now tell us renters don't stay there long, most stay for two weeks maybe three at most. Not like us where we stayed five months before we moved out.
They got spooked once themselves when the lights all turned on all by themselves since it was empty and void of life and found turned off during day time as they walk pass our old unit to get to their car. We were told that it remains empty now, where even Jake himself stays outside and goes collects the old mail and put it back to return to sender. He has given up renting the place, even though he has gone bankrupt, and now it is up for sale by his creditors.
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