In 1985, my best friend and I shared a townhouse in Dale City, Virginia, with 2 guys (Jeff and Bryan). Completely platonic, by the way. One day as I was coming in the door after work, Jeff was on his way out to visit our next door neighbor. I asked him if anyone else was home and he said just him and he'd be next door visiting Charlie and It. It was a huge black cat. I absolutely loved that cat. I locked the downstairs door after Jeff left, because I didn't want anyone coming in without me knowing it while I was taking a bath. We had an ex-roommate who was a little bit on the angry side and left on not so good terms.
I got ready for my bath, shut and locked the bathroom door. While I was in the tub, I heard the downstairs door open, heard footsteps come up the stairs and go into Bryan's bedroom, which made me automatically assume Bryan had come home. But then I heard the footsteps leave Bryan's room and go into Jeff's. That's when I realized it wasn't Bryan. Bryan was a very quiet, shy guy who would never think of going into someone else's room. And, yes, he would have known I was home because my car was parked in front of the townhouse. So even if he was sneaky, he wouldn't have done it with someone home.
The footsteps walked around in Jeff's room for a few minutes. I heard what I thought to be the lid on a chest that Jeff had being lifted and closed back down and heard other things being moved around. At this point, I just figured Jeff had come back in. I couldn't figure out why he went into Bryan's room, though, but it was none of my business anyway. I had already half decided it wasn't Jeff when I heard the footsteps heading toward the bathroom. Considering Jeff knew I had intended on taking a bath, he would have said something to me when he came up the stairs. I then saw a shadow pause in front of the bathroom door. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I never made a sound. I think I was too afraid to move. I had no idea who was on the other side of that door. By the way, I was only 20 at the time, so things scared the crap out of me pretty easily. At almost 45, the same situation would probably scare the crap out of me now too! After a few seconds (it really felt much longer at the time) the footsteps (and shadow) then went into the room my best friend and I shared. I never saw or heard anyone leave our room. A few minutes later I heard something fall and break in our room. At that time I collected porcelain and I thought one of my Dutch dolls had fallen and broken.
Before I could get out of the tub (yes, I had found my courage and was going to check and see what fell in my room), I heard Jeff running up the stairs, yelling my name. I answered him and he asked me what was wrong. I asked him what he was talking about and he said he heard me screaming his name for help. Remember, he was next door at Charlie's, but thought he heard me screaming for help. I told him I didn't. He insisted he heard me screaming for help. After I got out of the tub and got dressed, I went into my bedroom but nothing had fallen or broken. I told Jeff what I saw and heard and asked him if anyone else had come in. Jeff said no because the door was locked when he came in and he had to use his key. We searched the entire townhouse, from top to bottom (even the attic) and found nothing. We were even anticipating a raccoon or squirrel in the attic. But there was nothing up there. Charlie, our next door neighbor, had a big black cat named "It." It loved to come into our townhouse. Whenever the door was open, it would run into our house. So Jeff went to Charlie's and brought It over to see if it reacted strangely at all. Well, Jeff and I got a much bigger reaction than we were expecting. As soon as Jeff brought him in, It started to hiss and the hair stood up on his back. Jeff brought It to the staircase and he hissed really loudly (It not Jeff!), staring up the stairs and started fighting Jeff to get down, clawing and scratching to get away. When Jeff let him down, it bolted for the front door. We could never get It to come back into our townhouse after that. If you've never seen a cat do that, it is one of the freakiest and, I'll admit, scariest things to see.
Jeff and I spent the rest of that night downstairs, listening for any sounds to indicate something was still there. We never did hear or see anything that could explain what we experienced. And, yes, the subdivision we lived in was rumored to have been built on battle ground. There were several cemeteries close to where we lived. This was at the point in my life where I was so completely uneducated and inexperienced in this kind of thing that I had no idea what to do or even what was going on. All I knew then was something was in that townhouse. I didn't, and still don't, know what it was.
Oh yeah, my best friend? When she came home from work we told her what had happened. She turned around, told us she was going to spend the night at her mom and dad's and left. Gee, thanks a lot, huh?
Loading comments....
These houses in the area were built in the 50's if I remember right, so they really didn't have all that much history behind them. We had one other cat at the time. Didn't seem to be bothered by anything. A black cat named Purrfect, and later a big orange tabby that showed up after the 89' earthquake. Neither of them showed any of the same signs as Toby though.