Recently a friend and I began talking about hauntings - I hadn't known him for very long but as we were getting to know each other, we talked about whether we believed in ghosts. Since I work in a haunted location (but that's another story) I told him that I did and he told me about the house that he lives in. And of course I had to have a look for myself, particularly as an amateur paranormal investigator.
To start with, he told me that an elderly relative of his, who owned the house and passed away in it (from natural causes) remains in the house. She doesn't like it when people leave lights or appliances on and will often turn them off if they are left unattended. She is generally quite good natured but if someone unfamiliar to her doesn't follow her house rules, she can be known to show her displeasure. For example, she absolutely hated people smoking in the house, especially as she was not a smoker herself. Should anyone smoke within the walls of the house, she tends to do things like hide their lighters or cigarette packets from them. They would then be found in really strange locations, like in the bathroom sink or in front of the back door, almost as though she was trying to hint towards shooing someone out the door.
She would occasionally call out, usually during the night and normally a greeting, like a hello. As long as someone she is familiar with is in the house, she is generally known to be a happy prescence. When it is only people who were strangers to her, she appears to try and ward them off, but aggressively turning lights on and off, rattling doors and windows, that kind of thing.
She was such a strong woman when she was alive, that it would appear as though her strength kept the original spirits in the house at bay. She would talk to them in her native tongue, which was French. When necessary, she would occasionally raise her voice and almost sound like she was warning them off. As my friend doesn't actually speak French himself, he couldn't really tell what she was saying, except sometimes when she would swear at them. As her health began to deteriorate, it would appear as though the spirits in the house would then gain some strength and she wasn't able to control them quite so much. My friend told me that, once she had passed away, the spirit activity increased significantly. He's not sure if it was initially her spirit, or those of the original inhabitants of the house.
It isn't known exactly who the other spirits in the house are. Only that they don't appear to appreciate people being in their space. One night, my friend awoke and found four human figures standing around his bed. Frightened, he closed his eyes and reopened them, but the spirits were still there. They didn't move, they didn't speak but he got the feeling that they were very aware of him and were trying to intimidate him.
The original idea behind their existence in the house was because, when his relative bought the house, a certain area underneath the floorboards had been dug up and re cemented. His relative would often joke that "maybe someone buried a body down there". Despite extensive searches, no origin story for these spirits has ever been conclusively proven.
Their main target lately seems to be his new housemate. He would often wake to the sensation of someone sitting down the end of his bed and a freezing cold chill in the room. He would hear someone talking out in the kitchen, down the other end of the house and calling out in an aggressive tone, as though they were mad. He would only hear this when he was home alone.
Both my friend and his housemate hear the sound of something being dragged down the hallway and heavy footsteps thumping towards their rooms. It doesn't seem to matter whether there is only one or both of them home, it happens at random a lot of the time. Sometimes several nights in a row, sometimes it hasn't happened for a month. The dragging sound also occurs outside the bedroom windows, as though someone is dragging a heavy bag of something through the backyard.
My friend has a nephew who also stays at the house sometimes. His nephew has reported to him that sometimes objects will be moved in front of him, like television remotes and glasses. He says that sometimes "they" try to talk to him, although he has never said exactly what they have whispered to him, only that it scares him and he doesn't want to talk to them. He says that sometimes he sees a man standing in the hallway. He doesn't appear to move or react to being seen. He just stands there until the nephew looks away and then he is no longer there when he looks back.
So, based on what he told me and my love and experience with the paranormal, I asked him if I could stay over for a night or two with some equipment and do a little investigating. He agreed and before I knew it, I was stood in his loungeroom holding a tape recorder and asking questions. I began with asking who was in the house and why they were there. Almost immediately, I had a voice come through, saying the name "John".
There was little in the way of further communication using this method. The only exception was when I asked why they liked to sit down the end of the housemate's bed in the middle of the night and the housemate's name was repeated twice. So I decided to change my investigation a little and try baiting them by reenacting an event that both occupants of the house told me often triggers activity; having a shower.
It had been mentioned to me by both of them that they would be having a shower and as they opened their eyes after rinsing off their face, they would see a dark figure on the other side of the shower screen. While this wasn't really something I wanted to experience, I wanted proof for myself that the house was haunted, even if it wasn't proof I could hold in my hand.
So I undressed and ran the shower. After climbing in and beginning to wash, I got the distinct feeling that I was being watched. As my friend had left the house to collect dinner, I knew that it wasn't him. I thought perhaps it was just my nerves getting the better of me so I continued my shower. I rinsed my hair and I was about to turn off the water and get out, when I heard a very quiet but definite sound of the handle on the door of the bathroom creaking as though someone was opening the door. I opened my eyes and looked through the screen towards the door and saw a flash of darkness, almost like a shadow running through the room. It was enough that it temporarily blocked out the whiteness of the towel that was hanging on the back of the door.
I quickly turned off the shower and stepped out, in a hurry to get dry. As I did so, I heard my friend arrive home and call out. After I dried and dressed, I went out to greet him and he said he thought he saw a man standing in the window as he pulled into the driveway and wanted to know if his housemate had returned home. We thoroughly checked the house, then called the housemate. He was in a movie at the time, so we were sure that it hadn't been him.
Fast forward to later that evening. I was resting on the couch, with my eyes closed, nervously trying to sleep. There was a dim light in the room as the kitchen light had been deliberately left on as I was anxious about sleeping in the house in complete darkness. I managed to doze off after an hour or so. I kept stirring, my sleep restless, but finally I managed to fall asleep properly.
I woke up around 4:20 am, woken by the sound of someone calling out in distress. As I opened my eyes, I saw the figure of a man stood in the hallway, looking at me. He didn't move, he didn't say anything. But I could hear the sound of someone breathing heavily, as though they were enraged by something. I sat straight up and couldn't take my eyes off of the figure in the hallway. I began to shake, as I was scared. I decided to call out to my friend and see if he was awake.
As I called out to him, he turned on his bedroom light, which was down the other end of the hallway where I had seen the figure. The figure disappeared as soon as the light turned on and my friend came out into the hallway to check on me. I decided I wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore and I figured I might leave, as I was quite shaken by the incident. As much as I had expected something paranormal to happen, I didn't expect to feel threatened or endangered as I had. As I was packing up my things and getting ready to go, my friend and I were talking about what I had seen and heard. We both heard the sound of someone chuckling quickly, as though they had delighted in scaring me.
I left the house in a hurry. My friend continues to live there for now. I haven't returned and I have vowed that I won't. I am clearly not wanted in the house on Binderi Crescent, Ingle Farm.
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