I have always had the ability to see, feel and hear spirits, although I didn't always know what I was feeling. I hear people refer to these insights as gifts and I strongly disagree. They have not always been gifts in my eyes.

This story is one of the earliest experiences I had. I did not see my object of fear, but I could feel him.

As a child in the mid-west, I spent most of my time in the basement of my grandparents' home. It was multi-roomed and full of antique toys, old clothes and shoes, all the items that make a perfect play house! The only place in the entire basement that did not fit my ideal was the bottom of the stairway which brought me to this glorious refuge.

There were 15 or so stairs. When I would reach the fifth stair from the bottom, I would have to stop and get psyched. As soon as I was ready I would jump as hard and far as I could and hit the ground moving. I could not casually walk through that space. The Boogie Man stood right there and waited for me.No where else did I feel him. Only that three foot square at the base.

Next to the stairway was a door on a spring. Behind this door were all of Grandma's canning supplies which she would send me down to get. After going through the ritual of jumping past the Boogie Man, I now had to get up the courage to run through him, in the door, get the supplies, run back through the now closed door (where the Boogie Man waited), back through the Boogie Man, jump up as many stairs as I was lucky enough to clear and make it back to the kitchen with everything intact. Talk about a decathlon!!

I tried to tell my Mom and Grandma about the Boogie Man in the basement, but, of course, being adults they knew there was no such thing. I couldn't get them to listen to me. After numerous attempts, I gave up and kept my fears to myself.

A few years ago, I went back to that house for the first time in years. I went down the stairs, waiting to feel the Boogie Man. I stood in that space at the bottom of the steps that used to terrify me. I looked for him. He never came. I assumed it was because I had grown up and had no time for make believe childhood fears.

I went back to my family in the living room and began to tell them of the fears I experienced in the basement as a child. I was finally told that day, of a man who had hung himself from the pipes that run across the ceiling in the basement. The spot he had chosen to perform this deed was at the bottom the the stairs, where the pipes were thickest and could hold the weight of a full grown man.So, the Boogie Man was not an unfounded fear. Why then, did he only scare me as a child, but as an adult I felt nothing?

The Boogie Man had been a child molester.

Submitted from: Robin, California, USA