Hallway Of Footsteps

This is my 3rd story. As the previous story briefly touched on my grandparents, I thought my next would be of my own experiences at grandma's house.

Around 1980, when I was around 17 years old, I lived with my grandparents for about 6 months. I had spent the first 8 years of my life living next door to grandma and grandpa, with a gate in the back side fence for easy access. I was at grandma's every spare second I had. Hence, I was very close to them.

Age 17 I moved in with them. They had lived in this house for approximately 53 years at the time. They had a bedroom right up the front of the house and Aunty Dot (who was not a real aunty) also had a bedroom at the front of the house. From here there was a long hallway through the lounge room, through the dining room, past my bedroom door and out to the kitchen. The hallway had a plastic runner for the full length, and was easy to hear when someone was walking down the hall.

One night, around 10pm, everyone else was in bed, I was in my bedroom with the door closed, and I was reading and had the TV on quietly. I heard footsteps coming down the hallway from the front of the house. Now, it was quite common at night that Aunty Dot would get out of bed and go to the kitchen for a snack. So being the stupid teenager that I was, I thought I would jump out and give her a fright. I waited with my ear pinned to my door, listening to the footsteps as they got closer and closer, and just as they got to outside my bedroom door, I swung the door open and went "rah!". There was NO ONE there.

I closed the door, felt a little stupid, and then started wondering about the footsteps on the plastic hall runner, because they WERE there. Then I heard the footsteps making their way back up the hallway to the front of the house. I waited until they passed my door, then peeked out, NO ONE there.

Now I should point out that both Aunty Dot and my grandparents were elderly, and did not move very quickly, so it is not a case of them passing by quickly and I missed them.

The following day, over a cuppa, I related this story to my grandmother. I could tell her anything, as she was the best and kindest grandma in the world (I realize you think your grandma was, but you are wrong, lol). Immediately she tells me, "Oh that's just the ghost, she's been here since we moved here. I have seen her often." I told grandma that I didn't see her, just heard her footsteps, and grandma said she had often seen her walking the hallway. She was a girl of about 14 years, dark skinned perhaps aboriginal, wearing a long white night gown, and carrying a lit candle on a holder / plate.

This was all she said, and we never spoke of it again, as it seemed so ordinary, not at all unusual, and we just accepted it. In case you are wondering, there were no bad or scary feelings, and nothing bad happening, she was just there.