My Brother Was Innocent

Shortly after my brother and his wife were married they rented an apartment on the 2nd floor. When their first child was six months old they did not want to take any chances with the little one accidently crawling out the door and falling from the balcony to the ground below.

The summer had just arrived when they moved to a moderate three bedroom house that seemed quite nice... At first.

One thing was strange however: Even though it was extremely hot outside, the temperature inside the house would suddenly become so cold that they would have to grab their jackets from the closet. After roughly thirty minutes, the temperature inside the house would return to normal and they would return their jackets to the closet. They had no idea that the house was haunted.

Their one neighbor was not interested in getting to know them and didn't look their way when they greeted. The other neighbor would greet and even have a short chat at the fence that separated the two properties.

Two houses down lived a french-speaking family. The parents spoke very little english and their teenage daughter often acted as translator. The daughter was a really lovely young girl who got to know my brother and his wife by chatting to them when they went for a stroll down the road pushing their baby in her pram. The young girl would often visit and played with the baby.

A few weeks after the move, my brother's friend offered them a kitten but the next day he brought two kittens! Being a good friend, my brother didn't want to make a scene so he accepted both but later the same day he offered one kitten to his neighbor who gladly took the kitten.

A week later their kitten went missing. They searched everywhere and finally decided that the kitten must have got out of the property by crawling under the gate.

The following day the neighbor accused my brother of handing him a kitten and then strangling it! My brother was dumbfounded! He explained that his own kitten was also missing but he did not kill either kitten. The neighbor shouted "I actually saw you do it!" He took my brother to the very back of the property and showed him where the two kittens still hung, their heads had been pushed through a hole in the fence!

My brother loved animals. As a child he had brought many stray dogs home, knowing that my mother was an animal lover and would look after them. My mother thought dogs were better than humans! Cats were never brought home because my dad was allergic to them. But no one in our family would ever harm animals.

No matter how hard my brother tried to explain that he was not responsible, the neighbor wasn't listening and he refused to talk to my brother again.

A few weeks later my brother and his wife were invited to a friend's house for a birthday party. They felt quite comfortable asking the young french girl to babysit. She brought a friend over to keep her company as the baby would be asleep in her cot most of the time. The babysitter was paid upfront and a good supply of crisps, coldrink, etc was left on the counter for the girls. My brother solemnly promised to be back by no later than 11:30. If anything unforseen happened, the girl could call her mom two doors away.

Upon their return, every light in the house was on and every window and door was wide open. My brother and his wife couldn't get into the house fast enough, they sensed something was very wrong. The first stop was the baby who they found fast asleep in her cot. The girls were no longer in the house, they had gone home. The crockery in the kitchen was all lying on the floor... Broken.

My brother's wife started to clean up while my brother marched to the french girl's house to demand an explanation.

The mother would not allow him to see her daughter. She screamed at him and threw the money into his face, accusing him of scaring the girls. The more he explained that he was nowhere near the house, the more the woman threatened to call the police if he didn't remove himself from her property.

Finally my brother walked home, still none the wiser as to what happened at his house that night. He discussed the behavior of the babysitter with his wife and they both agreed that this young girl would not break anything and leave their house in a mess with the baby alone in the cot. Something unnatural/paranormal must have happened in their absence!

The following week my brother took his wife to her mom in a nearby town where she and the baby would visit for a few days.

On his first day alone, my brother arrived home from work, lit a cigaret, placed the cigaret packet and lighter on the kitchen counter, then ran his bath water.

After the bath he returned to the kitchen counter to fetch another cigaret, but his lighter was gone! Within seconds the temperature dropped drastically.

At that point he became very scared and finally realized that something was seriously wrong with the house. He hurriedly grabbed some clothes, locked the house and spent the next few days with us until it was time to fetch his wife.

They moved shortly thereafter to stay in a coastal city. Some years later a friend of my younger brother showed him the 'new' double-story house that had been built on the property. The friend explained that shortly after my older brother had moved, the company who owned the house realised that something was not quite right as no one stayed for long. They demolished the house and also the adjacent house (the one where the other kitten lived).

Graves were dug up and the remains where moved to another site. A prayer meeting was held and the two properties were sold as one property at a very cheap price. A buyer came along and built the double-storey home where he lived in peace for many years.

I always wonder what the neighbor and the french family thought when they realized that the house was actually haunted.