The Earthquake Ghost

This story takes place in late September of 2001.

My ex-husband John (not his real name) and I lived in a 3 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, NY. We never experienced anything paranormal until we had an earthquake.

One night I was torn out of my sleep by a very loud cracking sound and then an even louder BOOM! I started screaming because I had no idea what was going on. John jumped out of bed and ran into the living room turning on all the lights. He thought someone had broken in, we looked around and I noticed that the CD's and DVD's in the entertainment center had fallen over, but no sign of anyone in the apartment. My only rational conclusion was that a tractor trailer flipped over on the expressway and the vibrations knocked some things over. We straightened everything up and went back to bed. When I got up the next morning I turned on the news looking for a report of an accident on the BQE, but was surprised to find out that New York had an earthquake.

A few nights later, I had just got into bed and John was already asleep. The bedroom and the spare room doors were closed. The spare room was right off our master and we used it for storage. I started to hear some movement in the spare room. It sounded like boxes were shifting. As I laid there listening half expecting to hear a box fall over, I heard a female voice in my ear say "My name is Susan" it was very low and at first I was not convinced and figured I imagined it, but the next night proved otherwise.

The next night I started to hear scratching coming from behind the headboard. I ignored it thinking it was John being a jerk scratching his nails on the headboard to annoy me. After a while I figured enough is enough and I told him to cut it out. He insisted that he wasn't doing it. He even showed me his hands. I said ok if you're not doing it then keep your hands right there. A few seconds later we heard it again. We both jumped out of bed and turned the light on. I'm thinking it's a rat, or mouse. I looked behind the bed, nothing. We searched the whole bedroom, nothing. He started to joke around saying maybe we have a ghost. Remembering what happened the night before I told him what I had experienced. He laughed at me and said "Oh yeah well this is what I think of your ghost", and started cursing and taunting it. I yelled at him to stop because if there is a ghost you are going to make it angry. He didn't believe or even want to hear what I was saying. John continued his verbal assault, and at one point I said out loud, if there is someone here with us please do not listen to him, he's an idiot. Then I looked at John and said "You have no idea what you are dealing with and you might be very sorry you went on this little tirade". Well no sooner said than done the next night she got her revenge.

We were in bed when the scratching started again. Then there were alternate noises, if it wasn't the scratching it was the shifting of boxes in the spare room. This went on for a while until John said this is ridiculous got up and went to the bathroom. On each side of the bed we had a night stand with 2 drawers. The drawers had those brass handles on them so when you opened it the handle would make a clanking sound against the wood. So he came back into the bedroom stopped on his side of the bed and asked me "Were you looking for something"? I said no, why? He said look, both drawers are wide open. I looked over and both the top and the bottom drawers were open all the way and even with each other. He was insisting that I did it. I told him that I did not and would have no reason to go through his drawers in the middle of the night. We argued over it, until I got fed up and suggested we close the drawers and just go to bed.

It had to be maybe 5 minutes later, I heard him yell out in pain. I looked over at him and he was rubbing the side of his neck. He told me that his neck was burning, and it really hurt. I turned on the light to take a look and he had 3 claw marks starting from underneath his ear all the way down to his collar bone. Then I noticed his night stand, both drawers were wide open again! There was no way I could have done it without reaching over him and I knew that he didn't because I didn't hear the sound of the brass handles on the wood. This scared the heck out of him, and he threw the covers off to get out of bed. Now with the covers almost completely off I saw about 6 or 7 pennies spread out on the bed. I was in total shock and couldn't figure out how they got underneath the covers. A person would have to get into bed with their pants on and change in their pockets for that to happen. Well, John freaked out and went running to the bathroom. I sat on the bed and was totally amazed at what was happening and the fact that I was not afraid at all. For some reason I knew she would not harm me, but she didn't like my husband at all.

Months went by and things got worse. We noticed that if we closed our bedroom door during the day, it would be wide open when we returned home from work, the same with the door to the spare room. The spare room became the coldest room in the apartment. John would not go in there for anything. I had a digital thermometer that I used for my oven, I took it into that room one day just out of curiosity and the temperature read 55 degrees, it was late September so it wasn't that cold out yet, and the rest of the rooms read 75 degrees. John hated to be home alone because she would do little things to torment him, like knock something off his desk, or shut off his computer. One time he had the phone off the hook because he said it kept ringing but there was no one on the other end just static. I went to my company Christmas party and when I got home he had 3 claw marks going all the way down the middle of his back. It got so bad that he started sleeping on the couch in the living room.

My mother had a friend who was psychic. I spoke to her, and explained everything that was happening. The psychic said that the spirit in my apartment was most likely dormant and the earthquake woke it up. She believed it was the spirit of a young girl who looked to me as a mother figure and saw John as a threat. She didn't like it when I left the house because she feared that I wouldn't come back. The psychic also said that the pennies were put in the bed by her as a gift to me. It was her way of saying that she liked me. She suggested that I put a candle on John's night stand and light it every night. She also said to leave a stuffed animal or some other toy out for her. I followed her advice and within a week the activity started to dissipate.

By August of 2002 John and I separated. I went back to the apartment a few times to pack up my belongings and I could feel that the whole atmosphere changed. It felt very sad and heavy. On the last day I was there packing up my things, I knew she was there, I could feel her watching me. As I was leaving I said good bye and told her that I hoped one day she would find her real mother so she can be happy again. So many years later I still wonder about Susan, and whenever I pass by the old apartment I give a quick wave up to the window of the spare room.

I'm sorry my story was rather lengthy, but I didn't want to split it up and have you all wait for the second part to post.

I hope you enjoyed it, comment if you like.