The Slamming Door

About two weeks before the end of the school year, my class went on a spiritual retreat. It was one of the last things that we would do as a whole class. The retreat took place in an old house, built in the 1930s. The place had belonged to a wealthy family, but after about thirty years they sold it to some nuns so they could use it as a convent. The nuns founded a graveyard right next to the house some years after they had bought the property.

There have been many different claims that the house is haunted, but I did not believe them when I first got to the house. The house was big and homey, and I didn't feel like there was anything else in the house that was paranormal.

In the first part of the retreat, we meditated, trying to leave all our worries and bad feelings behind us. As we meditated I heard some interesting sounds upstairs, but I just passed them off as natural noises.

After the meditation we broke off into groups to discuss some topics. Every group went into a different room- there were about seven groups- to have some privacy. My group took the only room downstairs. The room had no windows in it, so the air was very still and stuffy. After about ten minutes in the room, all of us started to feel a bit uncomfortable and chilled. We looked at each other oddly, and asked if they were feeling the same.

Then a huge breeze just blasted through the room making our papers fly everywhere. The breeze seemed to have come from the closet so I opened it up and searched for a vent or something that could have caused it. There was nothing but a few jackets and a hat. We frowned and went on with our discussion.

During the lunch break, my group told everyone what had happened, thinking that there was a logical explanation. As we were telling our story, someone from another group told us that they had had an odd experience too. As our room had been, there had been no windows and absolutely no breeze when the door was shut. They had been talking with each other and suddenly, the door slammed open. The room had then become very cold.

So my friend "Kyle" and I decided that we wanted to go upstairs and do a little investigation. We went into a room and started asking "Is there anyone here with us that would like to show themselves?" and things of that sort, all the time laughing and taking it as a joke.

Then Kyle said, "Please slam a door if you don't like us being in here..." Nothing happened so we left the room. Kyle went down in the direction of the bathroom, and I entered the room at the end of the hall, the one that the door had opened itself.

I walked around the room, and started humming softly. All of a sudden there was a huge gust of wind and the door slammed shut. I screamed, startled. I knew that it hadn't been Kyle for it had been down at the other end at the hall.

I ran toward the door and yanked it open. Kyle was staring at me wide-eyed. Without saying a word, we ran down the stairs and out the front door into the lunch area.

At the end of the retreat, we were getting into cars to return to school and I looked at the window in the living room. The curtain moved and I caught a glimpse of a little girl's face, then she vanished.

I don't know if what I experienced there was actually paranormal, but it was definitely interesting, and I hope to go back there someday to try to answer my many questions.