When I was 12, my mother met a new man and soon married. We moved from the run down terraced house we lived in, and moved into a better area, a little cul-de-sac that was larger than we had lived in before. From the first time I stepped in that house, I never felt lonely. Even though when I was young and my mother worked a lot and my step-father was away from home during the week. I have two biological little brothers and during the week they'd go to my grandparent's house after school but I was deemed old enough to stay at home by myself.
At first it was just footsteps in the rooms upstairs, and glimpses of a man out of the corner of my eye, always leaning on the doorway and looking at me. He looked elderly to me. Soon, my relationship with my mother and step-father broke down and I spent a lot of time in my room either on the computer or reading. I started having nightmares about my real father who was not a nice man, and I secluded even further into myself.
The footsteps and glimpses carried on, even when my step-father was home.
One night my step-father, who's a military man and very hard to intimidate, went white and started shaking for no reason. He said he felt ill but kept glancing at the ceiling where the footsteps were, upstairs in my bedroom. It carried on like that until one night I had a particularly bad dream and I woke up calling out for my mother. I felt a soft brushing, like fingers, on my cheek and heard "Sh, Sh, No more crying," in ear and instantly I felt better. I felt small touches on my cheeks, which I know are now called 'Butterfly Kisses', from time to time when I was on my own and feeling down, or stressed out.
My cousin slept over one night in my bedroom and after watching some comedies, we went to sleep. I woke up to her shaking me and pushing me over so she could get in bed next to me. She said I'd been crying in my sleep so she'd turned around to see if I was okay, but there was a black mass leant over me and touching my cheek. It'd scared me but I felt comforted by it.
I named him George but I have no idea if that's his real name. It just felt right to call him something.
I don't live there anymore as I live with my fiancée, but I still think about George and occasionally feel Butterfly Kisses on my cheek when I have a bad dream.
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