ONYX HOUSE

I went to the University of Oregon for my undergraduate degree. At the end of my Junior year, I moved into an old (1020's) three bedroom house on Onyx Street just a few blocks off campus.

My friend Kate and I were living there for about a month before our third roommate, that would just be there for the summer, arrived. During this month we were diligent in checking the doors and windows every night before hitting the sack because neither of us had lived in a house alone before. We always had trouble with the back door in the kitchen. Every morning we would get up and the dead bolt would be unlocked, but the lock on the handle would be locked. After a week of this we set a kind of booby trap so we could tell if the door was being opened. Rigging bottles and strings around the door, we never had any occurrences, except the door would always be unlocked.

A few weeks later the third roommate, Sarah, moved in. Just a few days after that, Sarah and I came in through the backdoor. Before we got the door shut I walked under the ceiling light, which just after I passed underneath it, came crashing to the floor skimming the back of my head! It shattered and cut up both Sarah and my feet. Upon examination of the lamp cover, the screws were still in the base that holds it up, and the rim around the glass cover was not broken, so...how did it fall??

Fall semester came, Sarah moved out and Julie moved in. Many incidents began to happen in our living room area, mainly centered on this antique entertainment stand we bought at a garage sale. It had doors in the front and inside was a stereo and VCR and movies. On top of the stand was the TV and on each side there were speakers, one speaker had a photo on it, there were some candle holders also on top of the stand, as well as an oil lamp. (These details come into play). Many of the candle holders would fly off the stand and land somewhere in the living room, usually not too far from the stand, but the three of us witnessed this many times. One candle holder in particular, would always hit Kate on the head whenever she was kneeling in front of the stereo/TV, this happened soo many times that the candle holder eventually broke.

During the winter I was home alone studying at my desk and a freezing cold blast of wind slammed my door open and starting blowing my papers all around the room, only to abruptly stop after a few seconds. The front door hadn't been open, the windows were closed, and I was home alone.

The biggest incident happened in March of 1999. It was spring break and I was staying at the house alone. A friend of mine, Lee, came from another state to visit, and only a few of my school friends were still in town. One night Lee and I and one of my friends were sitting on the porch, having a few beers and talking by the fire. All the lights in the house were off so we just had the firelight to go by. It was getting pretty late (around 1:30am) when all of a sudden we heard this loud crash from inside the house. My first thought was that I left the backdoor open and someone had come in. I, for some reason, rushed immediately into the house flicking on lights as I reached them. Once I got to the livingroom I realized what the crash was. The oil lamp on the TV stand had been smashed, red oil was dripping all over the cabinet and onto our light tan carpet making a huge stain! Not only that, I looked down at my feet and saw the picture that used to be on one of the speakers on the TV stand. It was laying out on the carpet, taken apart piece by piece, the frame, the glass, the picture, the cardboard piece, and the backing...all laid out in a nice little row. The closest piece of the picture was over 13 feet from the TV stand (I measured later). I made Lee check the house for intruders, no one was there and the backdoor was locked. As soon as I realized what was going on I immediately got towels to try to get the stain out of the carpet and get the flammable liquid off the old wood TV stand. As I grabbed a towel I said out loud, "If you want my attention, you don't have to break and ruin things to get it." I don't actually know why I said it at the time, it just came out.

In the ten seconds it took me to grab a towel and return, the stain was gone. The TV stand was dry, there was no residue, no wetness, no smell, nothing. Completely gone, I wouldn't even of known where to clean. Everything was dry as a bone. I had a little trouble sleeping that night but that isn't the end.

Kate had been gone all of the winter semester and returned at the beginning of that summer. After graduation we stayed in the house for another three months. About two weeks after her return, she hesitantly asked if I had come into her bedroom the night before. I told her no, and she said that someone did. She went on to explain to me that she woke up thinking she had just laid down, but then looked at the clock, which showed 3:14, and heard footsteps coming towards her. She looked and saw the head and shoulder outline (no other details) of what she says is the man that came to visit her. Kate tried to ask who he was and what he wanted but she couldn't get it out. He walked to her bed, sat next to her (she could feel him on the bed) and laid a hand on her stomach. She said it was the most comforting feeling she ever felt and was actually able to fall asleep while he was sitting there next to her. The strangest thing about this though, is the fact that two nights earlier, I woke up in the middle of the night, sat up in bad and looked at my clock. It read 3:14, I then looked across the room and saw the shadow of a man standing in the corner. When I saw him he began to move towards me, I felt no fear, I was relaxed and comforted by his movement. He came to the side of my bed and just stood there, I could not make out any details of his face either. I eventually fell back asleep. I did not tell Kate this story after it happened. We couldn't believe it. The rest of the summer was void of any other occurrences and the backdoor finally stayed locked all night long.

Submitted from: Patricia, Wisconsin, USA

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