I was thirteen and was completely frozen to death with sheer terror on my face. With the Nintendo control in my hand I was more than terrified to turn and see who was standing behind me. See, there was no other physical living and breathing human being besides me in that apartment. My mom and dad had gone grocery shopping while my brother and cousin had gone to God knows where, out and about their businesses. I had the apartment at the Old Meadows in Houston, Texas all to myself for a couple of hours until my family got back or so I taught.
This terrifying nightmare began at the Old Meadows when I used to share a bedroom with my parents. I recall the apartment had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Of course, it had a kitchen and a living room. Can't really remember why, but I didn't have a bed during that time. Who knows what happened to my bed? While my parents slept happily in their bed I had to sleep on the floor in a corner for a short time, while my mom could find me a bed.
One day my mom comes from work waltzing in happily announcing she found me a mattress. She used to clean apartments and tells me that I can crash on the mattress until I get a bed. Till now I wish she'd never found that mattress. It was soft and more like a thick sleeping bag that you could roll up after you were done sleeping. It was a plaid mattress like Burberry had wrapped it and it was okay except for the uninvited friend it brought along.
Four or five nights later I would wake up to someone calling my name. When I would ask my parents what they wanted my mom would respond angrily, "Nothing." and tell me to go back to sleep. Many times and nights later I would hear my name being called again and again. Each time I questioned my parents why they were calling my name they didn't have a clue to what I was talking about. Could it be a ghost? My mind would race in circles thinking yes, no, they do exist, don't they?
Hearing my name at 3 or 4 a.m. By someone or something that wasn't my parents and was in the room with us was weird enough. Maybe it was my imagination. Later it turned the tables and started calling my parent's names. At 3 or 4 a.m. My parents would ask, "What do you want, Jackeline?" I would wake up to my mother inquiring about why I had woken them up. In a very confused voice I would ask, "What, huh?" and would go back to sleep. The name-calling would repeat itself on different occasions and on different nights. Who would have known back then that the name calling was only the beginning of all the other weird things that where going to happen.
One night I remember feeling that my blanket had been pulled. I felt a little tug at the end of my blanket by my feet. It's just my imagination I kept trying to convince my self. I must have moved my foot or something, that's why I felt that little tug. That night my parents were talking about God knows what, when I heard my name being called. All three of us were awake at the time and even my mom asked, "What Jackeline?" I know for a fact that my parents had not called out my name because I wasn't even the topic of their conversation. So, who was it that called my name? Another hour later came another tug. Someone or something pulled my blanket again I thought. No, it's my imagination!
Now, as the days were passing by it wasn't just the name-calling and the blanket pulling that was getting worse. As if we didn't have enough on our plates. The pushing came along to join the haunting events that were going on. Now at night it wasn't just let me pull your blanket, let me give you a push too. During some nights I would feel a push on my back, arm, or thigh. The first thing that would come to my mind was you're dreaming. As the nights would go by the pushes would occasionally be felt. They felt like a real human being had pushed me. Like what live human hands feel like. It wasn't a big push that was going to throw me across a room. It's like when some friends are joking with you and they give you a gentle push on the shoulder or something. Someone telling me, move! I would go over and check on my parents, but it couldn't off been them pushing me, because they were dead asleep.
This ghost must of gotten tired haunting us during the night because later it looked for a day shift. Strange things started happening during the day. Many times my mom, dad, bro and cousin, including me in the wagon would place objects in certain areas and later some invisible force would move them or just hide them somewhere else. Keys, clothes, etc... You could place your drink on the coffee table, phone would ring, you would get up answer the phone and by the time you went back to retrieve your drink, it had to been magic because it wasn't on the coffee table anymore.
On one particular day, my parents were at their jobs so it was only my brother, his friend Ramon and me. I went to the bathroom to take a shower and locked the door. I took all my clothes off, laid them on the floor with the new clothes I was going to put on and jumped in the shower. Once I was done my clothes were gone! I didn't even have a towel. I looked in the bathroom closet, the hamper, and under the sink and they were nowhere to be found. I was angry thinking that my brother and Ramon had played a prank on me. The thing is there was no way that they had sneaked into the restroom because the door was still locked. If they had tried to open the door I would had heard them. I also would have seen something because the curtains were cleared. I questioned my brother and Ramon and they didn't have a clue to what I was talking about. After an hour later of looking for my clothes I found them on the couch. That stupid ghost!
That wasn't even the scary part that was just the strange part. Could it be a figment of my imagination? Could it really be a ghost? No! This is the really the scary part! A month later or so, I began noticing that when I was completely alone I would feel somebody watching me. I got the sensation that I wasn't alone. My brother had a Nintendo so I would sometimes go and play with it. On several occasions I would walk out of my room and head to the living room thinking one of my family members had gotten home. To my surprise no one was home except for me. I would be in my room and hear noises coming from the kitchen and living room. I could hear people talking in the living room and when I would go check, no one was there! Things got pretty bad when my parents would leave and I didn't want to remain home alone. Somebody was watching me and it was wasn't a friendly ghost because I would be so scared that electrifying chills would go down my spine.
I would be so scared of this identity that I would entertain myself playing Nintendo for hours and hours never taking a peek at what could had been standing behind me. All I knew is it was evil. I could feel the mean spirit standing behind me and believe me I used to pray! I prayed really hard. With my mind, soul and everything I would pray. Don't look back. Don't look back, Jackeline.
Several weeks later, I heard my mom speaking to my dad. It was during the night and they taught I was asleep. She was explaining to my dad that one afternoon she'd came home really tired and had lain on the mattress for a while. She continued and told him that she felt someone pushing her on several occasions. It was strange to her because she was alone. She also confessed to him that sometimes when she was alone she felt like someone was watching her. Yes! I thought. I'm not crazy. My mom had experienced some of the same activity that I had. To make things better my dad told her he had also gotten the same feeling he was being watched when he was alone.
The next day I questioned my brother and cousin to see if they had experienced anything weird. They both explained they felt they were being watched sometimes while they were alone. Hearing voices coming from nowhere. Things disappearing and appearing in other places they hadn't been left. They had just decided to keep things to themselves because they didn't see why it would be important to share.
At the end of that week or so, I listened in on another conversation my parents were having one night. This time it was my dad's turn. He began by telling my mom that he got curious about what she had said about my mattress and decided to take a short nap on it during his lunchtime. Before a few minutes he felt a little push. He remained on the mattress thinking it was just his imagination. To his surprise a few minutes later he felt a few more pushes. He wasn't asleep. He was awake! My parents came to a strong conclusion that all the ghostly activity that was going on was somehow linked to the mattress.
After a month or so, I got home from school one day and the Burberry looking mattress was gone. It had been replaced by a new bed! I asked my mom what had happened to the mattress and she responded, "I gave it to Mayeli." Mayeli is one of my mother's cousins. One of her cousins she didn't like much. After the mattress was gone all the ghostly activity stopped. Everything went back to normal. I would stay home alone and nobody was watching me.
I had to know more about the haunted mattress. Mom I asked one day, "That mattress that I once had, the one that you brought me from work." Where did you find it?
"I got that mattress from an apartment where some people were going to get rid of many things. The lady who lived in that apartment had died the day before I got the mattress." My mom explained. I told my mom that the mattress had something evil about it and that's when my mom replied with a big smile, "I know. Why do you think I gave it to Mayeli?"
On a note I've changed the name of the apartments and the name of some of the people in the story but believe me this is all true.
By: Jackeline Lopez
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