THE FOUR ENCOUNTERS Hello there, after reading many of the paranormal experiences on this site, I thought I would share fourexperiences with you that happened to me any my family. If I related them all, well it would be very long to say theleast. Everything that happened and which I am about to tell you is true. It is up to you, as the reader, whetheryou wish to believe it or not. I have lived in two haunted houses, but it is with the second haunted house, that I shall focus on here. The first of the four strange experiences to happen sends shivers down my spine even though I was not around at the time of the incident. My mum and brother were at the bottom of the stairs to the next level talking. It was daytime, and no one else was home. All of a sudden, something caught my mum and brother’s eye on the floor. What they saw shookthem up. A long, dark shadow passed on the floor, and then disappeared. The way the shadow was cast was as if it was from a person who had crossed the floor upstairs between my sister’s bedroom and the bathroom. My mother and brother, both shaken, made their way upstairs to look for who had caused the shadow. They looked in my sister’s bedroom…nothing. They looked in the bathroom…nothing. They looked everywhere in the house, but could find no explanation. When I came home and learnt of this, I went upstairs and walked along the landing and as I walked from my sister’s room and in the direction of the bathroom, my mother who was at the bottom of the stairs, saw my shadow cast by me and said it was just like the shadow she and my brother had seen. From this, we concluded that someone had been upstairs, and had crossed the floor between my sister’s bedroom, and the bathroom, and had somehow slipped away undetected, or that the shadow could have been caused by someone walking on the public path behind the back garden, and that their shadow had somehow cast through the window upstairs that overlooked the stairs. The problem with that is that the public path is lower than the window, and to even cast a shadow like that, the person walking on the path would have to be at least 10 foot tall. I think that’s what scares me. Well not long after, me, my dad, mum and sister went on holiday. My brother decided not to join us,and stayed at the house with his girlfriend. Well, when we came back after a week, we came home to a very nervous looking brother. He, a man of his then mid twenties related to us how he had experienced many strange happenings while we were away. The first of which when he was in the bath upstairs and his girlfriend was in his bedroom downstairs. He said how he heard three knocks at the bathroom door, and had called out to his girlfriend in reply. There was no answer and after he got out of the bath he asked his girl what she wanted when she knocked. She said she had not, and had been asleep. That night my brother and his girlfriend were in his bedroom, drifting off to sleep when the latch of his door went up. Now the latch was there as it was an old door that did not have a knob or handle, but a latch. Luckily, my brother had a bolt on the door and the latch went up, but the door could not open. My brother, naturally thinking there was an intruder in the house, grabbed his baseball bat from under the bed and searched the entire house finding no sign of anyone breaking in. He went back to his bedroom and once again bolting the door. That night, and the following nights, my brother and his girlfriend would be disturbed by the latch of the door lifting, but even more scarier, the sound of footsteps upstairs sounding like they were walking from my sister’s bedroom to the bathroom and back again. Scared, my brother and his girlfriend would not leave his bedroom till it was lightoutside. My brother and his girlfriend (now wife) swear what they say happened, did happen. Needless to say, nexttime we went on holiday, he and his girlfriend came with us. The third experience that I shall tell of was when I was sitting in my bedroom, and I had my door open, and with the door open on the left, you can look out onto the floor where my sister’s bedroom and the bathroom is, as well asthe airing cupboard next to my room. I was sitting on the floor, and was cleaning my model cars. Everyone else wasdownstairs. All of a sudden, something to my left caught my attention to warrant a look out of my bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something truly weird. What I can only describe as a white, shapeless thing with black holes in it moved slowly from my sister’s bedroom to the wall to the bathroom, before disappearing. Taken aback, Icontemplated what I had just seen. The outside of this thing had short tentacles that rotated around the body. Itwas a blob, white, with black holes. After calming myself down, I ran very fast downstairs. I told everyone about it, and only when I thought about it that the “it” had taken the same route as the shadow that my mum and brother had seen, that from my sister’s room to the bathroom, and the footsteps he and his girlfriend heard the time when they were alone in the house. Well, I tried to rationalise the sighting, and tried to put it at the back of my mind. The one event that really sticks out for me was when I was in the bath. My Mum and I were the only ones in the house. I was relaxing when I heard three knocks on the bathroom door. I shouted out “Yeah” thinking it was my Mum, even though I had not heard her come up the stairs (she takes her time, she has arthritis). No reply. So I carried on relaxing when I heard three knocks again. This time I got out of the bath, wrapped a towel round me and unbolted and opened the door. No one there. No one upstairs. I called to my Mum who appeared at the bottom ofthe stairs. I asked if she had been knocking as she said no. I honestly did not know quite what to make it of it, so I reluctantly went back in the bathroom, and bolted the door. But instead of getting back in the bath, I waitedbehind the door. I heard a creak, just one, on the floor outside the door, which has a distinctive creak. Then…knock knock knock. I quickly unbolted the door, opened the door and………….nothing. No one. I called for my mum again, who appeared at the bottom of the stairs again and I told her if she is playing some joke, just admit it. My mum did not know what I was on about, and I told her to stop knocking, and she swore she had not. I searched the upstairs and found nothing, got dressed searched and searched downstairs, nothing, just my mum cooking. My mum still is adamant that she did not knock or come up the stairs, and I did not hear the front door or back door open to suggest another family member playing a prank, and besides I do not know how they could suddenly disappear without a noise when I opened the bathroom door quickly to the final knocking anyway. What I conclude from these four experiences is that there is something that walks on the floor between my sister's bedroom and the bathroom, that my brother and mother saw as black shadow, my brother heard walking frommy sister's bedroom to the bathroom, I saw as a shapeless white blob taking the same route, and finally, the knockingon the bathroom door. As I said earlier, I have experienced other things, but these four occurrences experienced by myself and other members of the family are linked, and stand out. Thanks for reading. Contact me here: otherwiseknownas@hotmail.com THE HAUNTINGS OF THE OLD HOUSE,OLD ENGLAND Hello there, over a year ago now I submitted four paranormal or at the very least, odd experiences that myself and or my family had in the present house I live. I entitled it “The Four Encounters” and it is now in the March 2002 section. I would now like to share more of my own and my family’s memorable experiences with you. Included here is an update of odd events and experiences that have happened since submitting “The Four Encounters”, that started in March 2002. Firstly, my apologies, I know it is long, Secondly, I must make it quite clear that what is typed here is true. It is up to the reader whether to believe or disbelieve, but I know what happened did happen where I was present, and in the cases it happened to my family members or friends and I was not present, I do not doubt their honesty. The house that myself, my parents and my sister live in is in a gradually growing village in England. The house according to my mum is quite a few hundred years old, and yes it certainly looks it, not modern at all, but a typical old house of old England, where green fields still surround the village like it did hundreds years ago. One day, my mum and me were the only ones in the house. I remember how I needed to ask mum something. So, thinking she was upstairs, I ran up the stairs and looking in all the rooms and not finding her, I went into my parent’s room, thinking she was in there, and I pushed the door to the room further back. As I did so, I called out “Mum”. As I did, I clearly heard a woman gasp. Fearing my mum was hurt, seeing as I could not see her, I looked on the ground, calling out “Mum” again, and again a woman’s gasp replied. I looked under the bed, and I looked all around the room, and I called out “Mum” once more, and again, a woman’s gasp replied. Now when I say gasp, It sounded like a woman who has been shocked or surprised, and was gasping at being took by surprise or shocked, and it was high sounding, like a female. Thoroughly concerned for my mum, once again I searched the rooms upstairs and found my mum in my sister’s bedroom, putting my sister’s washed and cleaned clothes on the bed. I asked mum if it was her gasping, and she said no. The really weird thing is I had looked in this room previously, and my mum was not there, but she said she had been there for a good while. She had not been downstairs, and that is why I had come upstairs. So two weird and scary things. I searched a room and found my mum was not there, when she said she had been, and secondly, this strange gasping. That frightens me. Very shortly after this, one night I was drifting off to sleep, and I always used to keep my bedroom door slightly open to let a bit of light in. I remember hearing a noise (I can not remember what) at the foot of the bed, and I sat up in bed to see what was the cause. At the foot of my bed, standing sideways and facing my bedroom door, was the shadow of what I can only describe as that of a little girl around eight. I could not see any features, just a dark shadow of a girl, around four feet tall I would say. I tried to rationalise what I was seeing, and I calmly laid myself back down and went to sleep. This shadow appeared in the same position night after night for about 3 or so months, and on various occasions I said “Hello” and “What do you want” but I received no response. Then one night after seeing the shadow yet again standing there, I lay down and tried to go to sleep. Suddenly, my bedroom door opened wide. It is such a heavy door that the wind can only blow it through inches, so somebody had to have made the door open like it did. I looked up and saw it had opened wide. Thinking it was my parent’s checking up on me, I laid there, expecting my mum or dad to come in, wanting to talk about something important. Nobody showed. I then saw to my complete disbelief my door close to again, by itself. No hand appeared to shut the door, and I froze in fear. After about a minute, I looked up and around the room, and I looked to see where the shadow of the girl normally stood. It was no longer there, and I have not seen it since. I immediately ran out of my room and flew down the stairs asking my parents if they had checked on me, they said no. My sister was asleep. My brother by this time had moved and brought a house with his girlfriend. It was around this time my sister would have horrific nightmares. Many a night the whole house would be awoken with the blood-curling scream of my sister, saying how there were people looking down on her as she lay in bed. Well after that I regularly saw white blobs and dark shapes out of my corners of my eyes, some times hovering at windows, other times really quick, dashing up or down the road. They are not cars or motorbikes as I would hear them, and I don’t think a cyclist or runner could travel up the road that quickly, as it is on a hill. But none of this really convinced me, silly as it sounds, until I started hearing things. The first such occasion was when I was on my Playstation, and I was the only one in the house. I was in my bedroom, and my game had barely begun loading, when I heard a clear female voice say “Hello?” Startled I tried to figure out the source of the voice, I think it came from the bottom of the stairs. I knew the voice would not have been that clear if someone had called through the letterbox. For some reason, I thought it wrong to answer back. After five minutes of being completely scared,I continued with my game. All the windows were shut, and the game I was playing, in fact none of my games say “Hello” at the start or at any time. I was later told in an Internet chatroom that it was rude not to answer back to the voice. Well, I hope you don’t blame me if I was a little scared by this unknown voice from the foot of the stairs and being a little afraid. The second occasion happened about some time after. I was sitting watching TV with my mum and everyone else was out. I heard a distant female voice from behind say “Excuse me”. For some reason I answered back, which my mum could not understand, as she had not heard anything. Anyway, when I answered back, the female voice said, “Help me.” I said “What, how?” but what the voice said next I could not understand. It seemed that whenever I spoke in reply, the voice got quieter and more inaudible until it was gone, and so there I was saying “What, how, pardon?” to the thin air, while my mum watched on, baffled. Things went quiet on the unusual or paranormal front, but I had a feeling that whatever, whoever it was, had not gone away. Yes, things were quiet, normal. Normal that is, until March 2002. The following happened in March 2002 and up to very recently in 2003. I was alone in the house one day, in the den/computer room downstairs. I started to hear a noise upstairs, it sounded as if someone was moving around up there. My first assumption was that it was an intruder. Not knowing to confront or flee, I decided on neither, and carefully shut my den door, carefully bolted it and waited. If they were to try the door, it would be bolted, but I felt perhaps I should keep the door unbolted, so that when they opened it I flew at them. Strangely, the thought of calling the cops did not enter my head. I think I thought that if I did, they upstairs would hear me. I of course tried to rationalise the sounds down to the house settling, but this sounded different, and I think I heard a muffled voice. Well, then the sounds moved downstairs, and I started to panic. I was still, and I was scared. It sounded like more than one person was moving around the whole time. Then, the noises stopped. Just like that.I stayed in the room, door bolted. Well, a while later, my parents came home, and I was relieved. I searched the house, nothing was missing, I told my parents, who were surprised, but having found nothing amiss, were dubious of any intruders.Just to add, when my brother and his girlfriend (now wife) were alone in the house for the week, they heard someone walk around upstairs, amongst other things. Whilst walking to my bedroom upstairs, I often see a dark, swift shadow about six to eight feet tall in my parent's room on my left when no one is in there. When I see this, I always hurriedly move into my room. Well, one night, I saw it again, but this time, it was not dark, it was brown. Again I moved quickly into my room before I could get a good look at it. I sat down in my bedroom, and started to watch "Hollow Man" on the TV. I was ten minutes into the film, when my mum (The only other person in the house apart from me at the time.) came in, and asked if I had been in the airing cupboard, which is next to my room. I said no. She said that the airing cupboard door was open, and the light was on, and sure enough when I looked, it was. The airing cupboard door was shut and the light off when I went into my bedroom, that much I know, even though I was a little scared by the brown shadow. The thing is, if I did not do it, and my mum did not do it, who did? Also what puzzles me is that opening the airing cupboard door and turning on the light switch would be very audible, and I would have heard it, but there was not a sound. Now I had my bedroom door closed to, not closed, but just enough to be open. I had my back to the door, and I heard nothing. I found it, and I still do, a little exciting that the spirit (If that is what it is) in my house was no more than 6 feet away, and carried out an action so close to me. Well, excited I was, I was not going to miss "Hollow Man" on the TV so I sat down and watched it. The next night, once again, I was walking to my bedroom. This time there was nothing in my parent's room. As I entered my doorway, straight ahead of me, from left to right, I saw an orb, it was round and transparent, and greyish/white. It then vanished. Shocked by this, I stood there, and told myself my eyes were playing tricks. The day after, I walked into my parent's empty bedroom where I sometimes see a shadow, and I said out loud "Hello, how are you?" I said this a couple of times, I got no reaction, so I said "I would be back later". Later in the evening, I walked into my parent's room, looked around, then walked out and into my bedroom and shut the door. As I did, I heard the latch on the airing cupboard door go up. I opened my bedroom door, and saw the airing cupboard door open. I screamed and shut my bedroom door, and stood like that for what must have been a minute. (Not screaming).I then opened my bedroom door and the airing cupboard door was still open. The light was off, and I shut it and went downstairs, where my mum and sister, the only other people in the house were. They had not been upstairs and I believe them because I would have heard them, and besides, no one was upstairs when I went into my bedroom. My mum heard me shout, but thought that I had stubbed my toe. My sister did not hear me shout, but I think she is hard of hearing at times. Shortly after, I was alone in the house, and I walked past the bathroom, and I noticed the door was open a little, but was almost closed. I then heard a woman gasp, and I fled downstairs in terror. Two days after, We had been to my brother’s house and his wife told me of another experience they had at the house I live in.They had to get up early in the morning for my brother’s work. One morning they got up and were at the bottom of the stairs. It was getting close to dawn, when my sister-in law suddenly saw a shadow at the top of the stairs looking at them, and she told my brother who saw it and called out. The shadow then vanished into thin air. Spooked, they went back into my brother’s bedroom, which was downstairs. They were not alone in the house, but everyone else was asleep, and even if there was someone of flesh and blood standing at the foot of the stairs, how could they vanish into thin air before their eyes? When we got home from my brother’s house, we checked the answer machine that says what number rang, and a message if the person leave it. A person rang twenty minutes before we got home, the problem with that was it was our own home telephone number. My mum and me were also notified we had a message. We listened to it and we got a voice, I think female, that speaks twice but you can not understand what it says, it just goes “mmf” then after a pause, “mmf”. All the time in the background, you can hear a crowd, all talking at one. It’s freaky, and I am getting chills down the back of my spine as I type. Four times late last year in the middle of the night I was awoken by the fact my bed was shaking, or should say vibrating violently. I was not moving, and my bed was vibrating, but the rest of the house was still. Was something trying to grab my attention? Because it sure did, but I could see nothing to cause my bed to move. Even more recently, I was alone in the house mixing on my turntables in my den downstairs when I heard what sounded like a knock on my closed den door. It was loud enough to be heard over my mixing and hard enough to cause my door latch to vibrate with the knock and make a ‘CLUNG’ noise. I figured that another family member had arrived home and was letting me know they were in, so I carried on mixing.What must have been an hour later, I was still mixing, when there was another noise like a knock at my door, loud enough to be heard, and hard enough again to make the door latch make the ‘CLUNG’ noise. So I unbolted and opened the door to see who was there, and…..Nothing, nobody there. I looked all over the house. Nothing and nobody. I was unnerved, so I once again bolted myself in my den room, playing my music loud until all the family members who reside here came home, and I asked them if they had been here earlier, and they had not. Just a few weeks ago, I was yet again alone in the house, this time upstairs when the phone rang in my parent’s room. Let me just stop here and add we have five home phones sharing the same line, just for safety. Anyway I walked into my parent’s room, trying hard to put out the thought of the shadow I sometimes see in there and snatched up the phone just after it stopped ringing. I dialled the number we have here in the UK that tells you what phone number rang. I froze. It was the home phone number; somebody must have used one of the phones in the house either in another room in the house upstairs (in my sister’s room) or downstairs, in the dining room, living room or kitchen. I retreated to my bedroom and quarter of an hour later when I heard no intruders, searched the house. Nothing, nobody, no sign of entry, forced or otherwise. It reminded me strongly of the answer machine incident badly. I checked the answer machine, there was a message. I did not wish to hear it, not after the last time our home phone number rang itself, and that odd message came with it. Shortly after, my mum came home, I told her the phone rang and it was our phone number like the answer machine incident, and she went right ahead and deleted the message without listening to it. The most recent odd occurrence happened a few days ago. You guessed it, I was alone in the house, in my den. It was mid afternoon, and funnily enough, I was reading stories on the Castle of Spirits site when I heard an almighty bang from upstairs. It sounded to me like someone had moved the clothes stand in the airing cupboard. I know this sound because I have heard this sound many times before as my mum puts the clothes stand away in the airing cupboard. I did my best to rationalise it as something else, but half an hour later I heard a truck’s engine from the top of the road, very distinct and loud, causing me to be distracted from my computer. I looked round behind me into the dining room at the TV on behind me that had Tennis on. I then heard a female voice, barely above a whisper say “What’s the matter, what’s up?” I was taken aback and then studied the TV only to see two male tennis players, and hear the commentators, who were male as well. Remember too, that nobody was at home.So I replied, and said “Nothing, the Truck just distracted me.” When I am alone in the house now, I hear noises upstairs, and that clothes stand moving in the Airing cupboard. The very last incident, a few days ago, I heard a step fall on the stairs, then nothing. In all these incidents, I feel someone or something wanted to communicate, the question I have to ask myself is… dare we answer back? Once again, my apologies, I know it is long, but thanks for reading. Contact me here: otherwiseknownas@hotmail.com Submitted From: Stefan, UK