When I was twelve, my parents and I moved across town to a big brand new beautiful home. We were in a beautiful subdivision that had previously been a tree farm, and there was a large man-made but spring-fed pond in the backyard that was six feet deep in the middle. The pond is surrounded by protected wetlands and there are a number of trees in the yard and a good deal of wildlife, including bobcats, geese, squirrels, and the occasional deer and coyotes.
The first encounter was a friendly sort... At least, that's how I felt about it at the time. I'm still pretty well convinced that it's unrelated to the other things I've experienced in that house. This is because, on the day that we moved into our new house, my Grandma passed away. That night as I was brushing my teeth in my private bathroom (I'm an only child) down the hall from my bedroom, the door unlatched and opened itself about five inches. I felt a friendly presence, and I smiled and said, "Hi Grandma!" A bit later I went back to my bedroom, turned out the light and hopped into bed. Just as I had gotten comfy and closed my eyes, the door unlatched and creaked open about ten inches or so. I didn't feel scared at all and said, "Hi Grandma!" again, and proceeded to hold an entire conversation with her as if she were in the room with me. My Grandma had had a couple strokes when I was only 2, and she couldn't communicate very well at all. So I never got to know her very well during her lifetime. These "visits" went on every single night with both my bathroom and bedroom doors opening themselves, and only at night. Also, all the doors in the house were the same but my doors were the only ones doing it. After about ten days I told my Dad there was something wrong with my doors and asked if he could fix them so they would latch.
Well, my Dad is a terrible procrastinator. I expected it to be awhile. After about a month or more of continual "visits with Grandma," one night I decided I was being selfish. When my bathroom door opened, I told Grandma how much these talks had meant to me and that I knew she needed to move on and enjoy herself now. I held my own little "ceremony" of sorts to say thank you and goodbye, and joyously sent her off. That night I had just gotten into bed and was feeling happy as well as a little bit sad that I would never have another talk with Grandma. Well, just then my bedroom door opened. Not ten inches but all the way open, and this soft blue light filtered in. I could feel her presence come into the room, but it was lighter, like a joyful child. In my mind I could hear music and hear her asking me to dance with her, and I got up and danced with her very joyously for probably about ten minutes. It was so wonderful! Then we said goodbye. She visited me in my dreams that night and we talked about very important things having to do with my life but I couldn't remember any of it upon waking. I'm sure it went into my subconscious. After that, my doors never opened again. I told my Dad a couple days later, "Hey thanks for fixing my doors! They stay shut now." And Dad said, "What Your doors? I never did anything to your doors."...I beamed. I had so hoped that he would say that! Well, that was a lovely experience in my new home. Unfortunately, there were many dark ones after that. Nothing too earth-shattering or terrifying, but there were a couple experiences that still raise goose bumps when I think about them...
To begin with, there were always the entities that came into my bedroom at night. I would be having a nice peaceful dream and suddenly snap awake in a dire panic with every hair on my body standing on end and my heart leaping into my throat. I could feel the presence of something huge, dark and tall standing at the foot of my bed staring at me and it did NOT like me. It always felt the same way: If I didn't get the light on, and move fast, I was going to either die or be attacked. Of course, I'm sure I wouldn't have died. It was probably just their way of scaring the bejeezus out of me! Well it sure worked! Many times I would lay there paralyzed - not literally, but in fear - too scared to reach my arm out to turn on the light but terrified to find out what would happen if I didn't. It would always end in a mad rush to flip over and flail about in the dark for my floor lamp frantically trying to find the switch. Those four seconds always felt like an eternity! Some nights I would wake up to find three or four of them swirling about above my bed staring down at me and enjoying the look of terror on my face. One night, probably the most scared I've ever been of these particular "things," they were swirling around above me and one of them suddenly swooped down really fast right at my face and I pressed backward into my pillow while my heart beat out of my chest. It was about an inch from my face, and finally after a few terrifying moments I leaped into a sitting position and fumbled with the lamp to get it turned on. I think I stayed up for at least a solid hour after that one.
As I've gotten older, those experiences stopped. Well I guess it's more just that I went away to college. I fought some depression during my teenage years and that could be what attracted those beings to me at that time and why they don't come around anymore, perhaps. I am 27 now and haven't lived with my parents in quite awhile. But during my summers home from college, and more recently when I've visited my parents' house and stayed the night without my fiancé, interesting things have happened. I feel that something has been toying with me, trying to perfect spooking me. My greatest fear of all time is somebody breaking into the house at night and killing me or my family. That has always been my greatest fear. Whatever this "thing" is seems to have caught onto that... Sometimes during summers home from college I would be reading in bed before going to sleep and I would swear that I could quietly hear the screen door (which has the flimsiest lock in the world) open up, or super soft footsteps on the carpet in the hall or in the tiled kitchen downstairs. Now during that time I always chalked it up to overactive imagination and my own track record with generally being hyper-aware and nervous at nighttime due to all the things that have happened to me at night. The screen porch door is downstairs very close to where my room is upstairs. (The family room right there has a two story vaulted ceiling, so it's all open and it's easy to hear when the screen porch door opens in the family room if you're just upstairs in my room nearby.) But I now wonder how much was really my imagination because this past summer I had two bone-chilling experiences on the same night that I will never ever forget...
My fiancé had to work, but I decided to do a week-long stay at my parents' house for a nice visit. One night I was lying awake reading late at night, probably around 1:30 or 2:00 somewhere around there. Suddenly with no warning or prior noises at all, I heard this HEAVY animal or thing land on the roof toward the middle of the house and run SUPER fast all the way to my room and literally right over my head... My room is on the end of my house. My head was leaning against the wall that is the far side of our house. I heard this thing's claws dig in and scrape as it leaped off the roof right over my head! Now three things about this spooked me. One, whatever that thing was, it was WAY heavier than a bobcat and WAY faster than any animal with paws that I know of in Illinois. It sounded like a mountain lion, which is of course impossible. Two, there are NO trees close to our roof that have branches thick enough to support the weight of an animal like that, let alone even a raccoon really and three, where on Earth did it leap to? We have a very tall two storey house, and there are no trees on that side yard. If an animal that heavy leaped from that high I seriously doubt that it would make it without breaking a leg. Whatever that was, it left me feeling incredibly uneasy. I continued reading, and then just as I was about to turn out the light awhile later, I heard the unmistakable sound of the screen porch door opening and the wind chimes outside blowing in some nighttime summer wind.
The door banged softly against the stereo speaker that is against the wall close to the door. That happens only when the door opens all the way... My jaw was hanging open in shock! The door to my bedroom was closed, but I was terrified beyond anything I'd ever felt before. I quickly flipped off the light in my room so as to not attract attention to my room, and dove under the covers, trying in vain to become invisible. It was as if they weren't even trying to be quiet. They seemed to have no fear. It sounded like there were two of them. They walked through the carpeted family room and into the kitchen farther away. I could hear their shoes stepping heavily on the floor, walking around as if they were checking everything out. I heard them open a few drawers and cabinets and shut them. Then they turned around and came back toward the family room sounding purposeful. The stairs were in that direction and my heart felt like it was about to BURST I was so frightened. I was whispering every prayer I could think of, praying for my life, for the lives of my parents, and as I heard the footsteps coming up the stairs I began almost hyperventilating. They slowed down halfway up the stairs and stopped, waiting... It was torture. I heard something clicking or clanking, as if they had guns. Then the steps started again but this time they were very slow and very quiet, like they were sneaking. They reached the landing and turned right toward my bedroom. I closed my eyes under the covers and as they tiptoed right up to my bedroom door I calmly closed my eyes and got ready to die... I waited for what felt like a year, and there was nothing...Nothing, nothing, nothing... Still nothing... I think I almost had a heart attack. I was clutching my cell phone in a vice like grip, wanting to dial 911 but not wanting to give myself away... And then I realized that it had been ten minutes... Fifteen... I peeked out from under the covers... I turned my lamp on... Nothing... Twenty minutes. I sat there in shock and stared at the door. Thirty minutes. Finally, with a trembling hand, feeling déjà vu from all the nights I had done this as a teenager, I reached out and turned on the light and nothing happened. After several minutes, I got out of bed and wrenched the door open... Nothing no one. I checked out the kitchen, the carpet for muddy footprints. The screen door lock, the family dog. Nothing was out of place or amiss, and the dog was snoring softly. I practically kissed the ground the entire next day I was just so excited to be alive!
So... Those are my crazy stories about my parents' confusing house. We're the original owners. What do you think it could be?
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