The story of how I came to live at my current address is a story in itself, but I will briefly outline events. My marriage had come to an end and I needed somewhere safe for my two sons to live. At the time, they still saw their father (previous ex-husband to the one I am leaving), who lived with his mother (my son's Grandmother). Between them they offered a place for my boys and me. Odd set up I know, but as I say, that's a whole other story!
I had only entered the house on a handful of occasions, prior to moving in, and had mostly stood in the passageway and on one occasion, entered the dining room. I was aware that an unhappy family had resided there before my ex's family had moved in and my ex and his family had a fairly tragic history themselves.
On moving in, I immediately felt a heavy and depressing atmosphere in the house. From my early teens I have been sensitive to such things and have been aware of a presence and/or atmospheric changes in many places, both in buildings and on open ground. This house felt overwhelmingly sad and tragic.
Due to the events that were taking place in my life, I had a few days off work during this transition. I was a bit of an emotional mess, given the circumstances. But I felt blessed, as I had been given safe haven by the least likely people to extend the hand of kindness. I was to find the extended hand had quite a different motive in the end, but we live and learn.
My ex-mother-in-law was not and never has been a tidy person, so that, coupled with the fact she had been away for a year, leaving her son and daughter (aunt and uncle to my boys) and a friend lodging in the house, I think it's fair to say the house was like something out of Hoarders.
I suppose in part this was symbolic to my circumstance, but during my time off, I scrubbed that house from top to bottom. Although it still looked tired and worn, it was at least clean and tidy! This did not make any difference to the general feeling in the house.
It was late August when we moved in and it was now leading up to Christmas 2008. In the few months we had been there, I was already convinced there was some sort of entity in the house, although I did not know what. My ex-mother-in-law was certain something was going on, as odd things had started almost as soon as she had returned from her travels (she returned to the house in the March, prior to my moving in during late August). Objects would go missing; the house would be turned upside down, but to no avail, only for the item to turn up in the exact spot it was thought to have been left in, days, sometimes weeks later. Pictures would fall off walls, most prominently at the top of the stairs, but throughout the house. TV's and radios would turn themselves on, as would various lights/lamps around the house and there was a feeling of being watched. I was witness to all of these occurrences, but I would also see a black shadow from the corner of my eye. I didn't feel any of this was evil in any way, simply very sad.
This brings us to Christmas Day 2008. I was in the kitchen preparing the veggies for the Christmas dinner. Everyone else was in the living room (the kitchen and living room are separated by the dining room, but you can see through all rooms from the kitchen door). The kitchen door was open as it's a small kitchen that gets sauna-like when the oven's on.
As I was merrily peeling the spuds, I was suddenly aware of someone behind me. That intuitive feeling we all have from time to time. My current partner tries to sneak up behind me, but I always know he's there, even if I don't see him, it was very much like that feeling. I felt and heard breath on my neck and at that point I started to turn my head around, believing it was my sons' father. What I was met with instead was a solid black human shape (head, shoulders, chest and arm, I did not look down to see if there were legs, etc) that simply winked out as soon as I had turned around completely and with it that feeling of someone being there was gone. I had harboured a gut feeling of who this was before this event, but this seemed to cement it for me and I wholeheartedly believed my gut instinct of this being my sons' father's brother, who had taken his own life whilst I was carrying my first son, so this would have been 17 years since his passing.
My ex-mother-in-law personally took the blame for his suicide, believing she could have helped him more and had always felt he was still around and had put this activity down to him. We had discussed this prior to this latest event and she had finally come to accept that she could not have changed what happened, which gave her some internal peace, but did not change what was happening in the house. I believe his presence and the overall negativity of the occupants of the house was the cause of all that was going on.
With the permission of my ex-mother-in-law, my mother made contact with her departed son, who wanted to tell her he was happy and she had nothing to worry about, amongst other things, but I won't publish them as they were of a personal nature and not for me to tell. Then a cleansing was performed to expel all of that negative energy. By this time, I should add that my sons' father had moved out of the house, so it was just my sons, ex-mother-in-law and me living in the house.
Soon after, she moved onto pastures new (USA) and we had the house to ourselves. Things still happen, but very infrequently and the oppressive atmosphere has dissipated. I'm sure it's the boys' uncle checking up on them from time to time. Perhaps it will stop for good once they finally fly the nest.
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